Fabrication of Organolead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells with Niobium-doped Titanium Dioxide as Compact Layer

Abstract

Organometal halide perovskite materials have shown high potential as light absorbers for photovoltaic applications. In this work, perovskite planar solar cells were fabricated on corning substrates with the structure as follows: the first layer made of tantalum-doped tin oxide as transparent contact material, followed by sputtering niobium-doped titanium oxide as the compact electron transport layer; covered with perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 as the light harvester by combination between spin-coating and dipping methods; CuSCN was evaporated as the hole transport layer; the final thin Al/Ag electrodes were deposited. This configuration is shortly described as Al/TTO/NTO/CH3NH3PbI3/CuSCN/Ag. Such heterojunctions are expected to be suitable for the development of efficient hybrid solar cells. The fabricated cells were measured under the air mass 1.5 illumination condition, showed the rectification effect and exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 0.007%, with a open circuit voltage of 53.2 mV, a short circuit current of 0.36 mA/cm2, and a form factor of 37%. The power conversion efficiency will be further optimized in near future.

Organic Inorganic Perovskites: A Low-Cost-Efficient Photovoltaic Material

“…The basic criterion for an ideal ETL is high optical transmittance, excellent electron mobility, high conductivity, and an appropriate work function. ETL also performs as hole-blocking layer (HBL) [19]. The configuration and the choice of ETL are essential factors to understand the electronic mechanisms in PSCs, which control processes such as carrier separation, extraction, transport, and the recombination.…”

“…To overcome this problem, the planar perovskite solar cell was developed that showed comparable performance for mesoporous perovskite solar cell. Planar heterojunction PSCs have been reported by several researchers in which only compact layers of ETM and HTM is used without a mesoporous layer at a temperature lower than 200°C [19,21,32]. Hence the planar structure turns out to be very attractive for basic research purposes.…”