Performance improvement of fully ambient air fabricated perovskite solar cells in an anti-solvent process using TiO2 hollow spheres

Seyedeh Mozhgan Seyed-Talebi; Iraj Kazeminezhad

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.12.004

Performance improvement of fully ambient air fabricated perovskite solar cells in an anti-solvent process using TiO₂ hollow spheres

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Mar 7:562:125-132. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.12.004. Epub 2019 Dec 4.

Authors

Seyedeh Mozhgan Seyed-Talebi¹, Iraj Kazeminezhad²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran. Electronic address: m.seyedtalebi@sru.ac.ir.
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran; Center for Research on Laser and Plasma, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

PMID: 31838348
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.12.004

Abstract

The porosity optimization of an electron transporting layer (ETL) in the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can make the effective pathways for transporting electron and blocking the holes. In the present study, the porosity modification effect of TiO₂ paste as the most efficient ETL using TiO₂ hollow spheres (TiO₂ - HSs) on the air-processed formation of perovskite films is studied. In this procedure, the TiO₂ - HSs were synthesized using removable carbonaceous sphere templates. Our characterization results demonstrated that prepared TiO₂ - HSs showed an external diameters less than 200 nm with shell thickness about 20-30 nm. Due to the high porosity of the TiO₂ - HSs, CH₃NH₃PbI₃ sufficiently infiltrate into the modified ETL. Thus a high- quality perovskite film with large grain size and smooth surface fabricated on the modified ETL. Further time resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) investigation reveals that an increase in the electron injection and recombination resistance leading to the performance improvement of the PSCs. The best fully ambient processed device with a modified electron transporting layer exhibited an efficiency of 19.62%, which is 16.37% higher than the efficiency of the standard PSC. Application of TiO₂-HSs in the ETL can help to the development of air-processed perovskite solar cells for commercialization in the future.

Keywords: Anti-solvent; Carbon sphere; Mesoporous TiO(2); Perovskite solar cell; TiO(2) hollow sphere.