Tuning of electron transport layers using MXene/metal-oxide nanocomposites for perovskite solar cells and X-ray detectors

Sajjad Hussain; Hailiang Liu; Dhanasekaran Vikraman; Syed Hassan Abbas Jaffery; Ghazanfar Nazir; Faisal Shahzad; Khalid Mujasam Batoo; Jongwan Jung; Jungwon Kang; Hyun-Seok Kim

doi:10.1039/d3nr01196h

Tuning of electron transport layers using MXene/metal-oxide nanocomposites for perovskite solar cells and X-ray detectors

Nanoscale. 2023 Apr 27;15(16):7329-7343. doi: 10.1039/d3nr01196h.

Authors

Sajjad Hussain^{1

2}, Hailiang Liu³, Dhanasekaran Vikraman⁴, Syed Hassan Abbas Jaffery^{1

2}, Ghazanfar Nazir², Faisal Shahzad⁵, Khalid Mujasam Batoo⁶, Jongwan Jung^{1

2}, Jungwon Kang³, Hyun-Seok Kim⁴

Affiliations

¹ Hybrid Materials Center (HMC), Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea.
² Department of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea.
³ Convergence Semiconductor Research Center, Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Dankook University, Yongin 16890, Korea. jkang@dankook.ac.kr.
⁴ Division of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul, Seoul 04620, Korea. hyunseokk@dongguk.edu.
⁵ Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁶ King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, Riyadh-11451, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 36974757
DOI: 10.1039/d3nr01196h

Abstract

This work elaborates on the decoration of metal oxides (ZnO and Fe₃O₄) between MXene sheets for use as the supporting geometry of PCBM electron transport layers (ETLs) in perovskite solar cells and X-ray detectors. The metal oxide supports for carrying the plentiful charge carriers and the hydrophobic nature of MXenes provide an easy charge transfer path through their flakes and a smooth surface for the ETL. The developed interface engineering based on the MXene/ZnO and MXene/Fe₃O₄ hybrid ETL results in improved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 13.31% and 13.79%, respectively. The observed PCE is improved to 25.80% and 30.34% by blending the MXene/ZnO and MXene/Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with the PCBM layer, respectively. Various factors, such as surface modification, swift interfacial interaction, roughness decrement, and charge transport improvement, are strongly influenced to improve the device performance. Moreover, X-ray detectors with the MXene/Fe₃O₄-modulated PCBM ETL achieve a CCD-DCD, sensitivity, mobility, and trap density of 15.46 μA cm^-2, 4.63 mA per Gy per cm², 5.21 × 10^-4 cm² V^-1 s^-1, and 1.47 × 10¹⁵ cm² V^-1 s^-1, respectively. Metal oxide-decorated MXene sheets incorporating the PCBM ETL are a significant route for improving the photoactive species generation, long-term stability, and high mobility of perovskite-based devices.