Recent Advances in Carbon Nanotube Utilizations in Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as promising next‐generation photovoltaic devices with the maximum output efficiency exceeding 25%. Despite significant advances, there are many challenges to achieve high efficiency, stability, and low‐cost simultaneously. Combating these challenges depends on developing novel materials and modifying conventional device components. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted considerable attention for fabricating efficient PSCs owing to their remarkable electrical, optical, and mechanical properties. With their multifunctional features, CNTs can play a wide range of roles and offer unique benefits in various components in PSCs to improve device performance and durability. Here, recent progress concerning the utilizations of CNTs as transparent conductive electrodes, charge‐transporter, perovskite additives, interlayers, hole‐transporting materials, and back electrodes in PSCs is comprehensively reviewed. The application of CNTs toward the development of 1D and 2D flexible PSCs is also discussed. A summary of current challenges and prospective on future research directions of employing CNTs to realize high‐performance PSCs is presented.

Solution‐Processed Chemically Non‐Destructive Filter Transfer of Carbon‐Nanotube Thin Films onto Arbitrary Materials

“…Transparent conductive electrodes compatible with arbitrarily shaped and material substrates have been comprehensively explored for generating various functions such as light-harvesting, [1,2] light-emitting, [3][4][5][6] and see-through electronics devices [7,8] The displacement of electrode materials from precious metals and metal oxides to ubiquitous carbon is the demanding requirement in sustainable development goals. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have continuously attracted wide-field for the enhancement of hole selectivity and conductivity, realizing high-performance SWNT-based electronics and photonics devices.…”

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attention based on their unique properties such as flexibility, electrical and thermal conductivities, and enhanced p-type [6,9] and modified n-type [10] semiconductor characters. [2,11,12] In low-temperature solution-processable device technologies, such convenient and low energy-consuming processes have prompted exhaustive wide-field research. [13][14][15] Environmentally friendly aqueous dispersion solutions of single-walled CNTs (SWNTs) are industrially applicable; however, we suffer from dispersant molecules seriously insulating electrical communication on solution-processed SWNT film networks.

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“…The high-conductivity p-type semiconductor character of CNTs with the ≈5 eV work function realizes hole-transport layer-free PVK solar cells. [2,[37][38][39] Therefore, the discovery of a convenient solution-processable technology for preparing top-contact thin films of SWNTs using their aqueous dispersion solutions is key to achieving all solution-processed photovoltaic cells that exclude evaporated metal electrodes and expensive p-type organic semiconductors; however, PVK layers are sensitively decomposed by water, some hydrophilic solvents, and some dissolved chemicals. Furthermore, solution-processable p-type doping technologies of SWNT thin films are crucial Filter-transfer methods of single-walled carbon-nanotube (SWNT) thin films have been widely employed to fabricate state-of-the-art electronics and photonics devices with highly transparent and conductive electrodes; however, a challenge remains for all solution-processable technologies to overcome substrates' destruction due to their solvent incompatibility.…”

Flexible transparent electrodes based on metallic micro–nano architectures for perovskite solar cells

“…9,[28][29][30][31][32] What's more, the vacuum deposition processing of TCOs also suffers from the high processing temperature (usually over 200 1C), low throughput and scarcity of indium, which is incompatible with the high throughput solutionprocessing and printing technologies. 25,[33][34][35][36] To address the abovementioned drawbacks, a variety of novel materials, such as metallic micro-nano architectures (MMNAs), [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] conducting polymers, [48][49][50][51][52][53] low-dimensional carbons, [54][55][56][57][58] and the composites formed by these materials, 49,[59][60][61][62][63][64] have been developed as promising candidates for flexible TEs. Fig.…”

Role of electrochemical reactions in the degradation of formamidinium lead halide hybrid perovskite quantum dots

“…Therefore, an alternative FAPbX 3 perovskite material was developed in the mid-2010s to increase the photoconversion efficiency and stability of PSCs. 33 Since then, various research groups have attempted to improve the current transport and decrease the trapping probability in perovskite-based electronic devices by increasing the perovskite crystallinity, 34 incorporating highly conductive carbon nanotubes, 35 substituting a small fraction (0.03 mol) of formamidine acetate (FA) with Cs and methylenediammonium to reduce the density of defects in the perovskite lattice, 36 reducing the carrier-trapping probability at the grain boundaries by anti-solvent engineering, 37 surface passivation, 38 formation of zero-dimensional quantum dots, 39 and introducing mixed A-site cations and X-site halides. 36 Currently, PSCs with outstanding photoconversion efficiencies are fabricated from mixed hybrid A-site (Cs and FA) and X-site (Br and I) perovskites 36 to optimize the bandgap, maximize the theoretical efficiency to the Shockley–Queisser limit, and minimize the trap density in the perovskite structure.…”