Effective Low Temperature Electron Transport Layers for Flexible Perovskite Solar Cell on Plastic and Paper Substrates

Sergio Castro-Hermosa^a, Janardan Dagar^b, Matteo Gasbarri^c, Fabio Matteocci^a, Alessandro Lorenzo Palma^a, Emanuele Calabrò^a, Lucio Cina^d, Andrea Marsella^e, Aldo Di Carlo^a, Thomas Meredith Brown^a

^aCHOSE - Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy, University of Rome ‘‘Tor Vergata’’, Via del Politecnico, 1, Roma, Italy

^bYoung Investigator Group, Hybrid Materials Formation and Scaling, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Albert-Einstein-Straße, 16, Berlin, Germany

^cSUNMIL (Supramolecular Nanomaterials and Interfaces Laboratory - Constellium Chair), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,, Lausanne, Switzerland

^dCicci Research srl, via Giordania 227, Grosseto 58100, Italy

^eAdvanced Technology Institute (ATI), University of Surrey, UK, Guilford, United Kingdom

Proceedings of Interfaces in Organic and Hybrid Thin-Film Optoelectronics (INFORM)

València, Spain, 2019 March 5th - 7th

Organizers: Natalie Stingelin, Henk Bolink and Michele Sessolo

Poster, Sergio Castro-Hermosa, 060
Publication date: 8th January 2019

In the last decade, the perovskite solar cells (PSC) have showed notable power conversion efficiencies of up to 23%. Most of these PSC are fabricated on rigid glass implementing high-temperature electron transport layers (ETL); however, recently new low-temperature ETLs including SnO₂have been developed reaching very high efficiencies up to 20%[1]. This approach made PSCs compatible with flexible substrates which, in turn, allow the roll-to-roll fabrication[2]. Here, we present the first time SnO₂/mesoporous-TiO₂ electron transport layer on a flexible perovskite solar cell (FPSC)[3]. When measured under STC and over an area of 0.1 cm², the SnO₂/mesoporous-TiO₂ FPSC delivered a maximum PCE of 14.8% which was ~ 30% higher than FPSC incorporating only SnO2. The indoor performance of FPSCs represented the highest power densities of for any existing flexible PV technology, i.e. 9.77 μW/cm² (estimated PCE of 12.8%) at 200 lx and 19.2 μW/cm2 (estimated PCE of 13.3%) at 400 lx under LED light illumination. We explored the role of the low-T UV-irradiated mesoporous-TiO₂ scaffold which greatly which improved the wettability interface of perovskite solution in the PET/ITO substrate, leading to an enhancement of perovskite growth and inducing high rectification ratios with low series- and high shunt-resistance as well as providing better stability with respect to cells without scaffold. Furthermore, we up‐scaled the technology to fabricate low‐temperature solution‐ processed large area flexible perovskite modules achieving a PCE of 8.8% on an active area of 12 cm²[3].

Also, we developed the first ever perovskite PV cell fabricated direct on an opaque paper substrate [4] obtaining the highest efficiency (PCE = 2.7%) for a PV cell on and opaque paper. Due to the non-conductive surface of paper, gold (Au) was deposited on it followed by an ETL either of SnO₂ or SnO₂/TiO₂. The hydrophobicity of Au led an irregular growth of SnO₂which constrained the formation of a perovskite film and limited the PCE of paper-based PSC (PPSC); therefore, a low-T mesoporous TiO₂ layer was deposited on the Au/SnO₂ electrode to reduce the shun paths and improve the performance of PPSC.

References:

[1] Saliba, M.; Correa-Baena, J. P.; Wolff, C. M.; Stolterfoht, M.; Phung, N.; Albrecht, S.; Neher, D.; Abate, A. How to Make over 20% Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells in Regular (n-i-p) and Inverted (p-i-n) Architectures. Chem. Mater. 2018, 30 (13), 4193–4201Architectures,” Chem. Mater., vol. 30, no. 13, pp. 4193–4201, 2018

[2] Razza, S.; Castro-Hermosa, S.; Di Carlo, A.; Brown, T. M. Research Update: Large-Area Deposition, Coating, Printing, and Processing Techniques for the Upscaling of Perovskite Solar Cell Technology. APL Mater. 2016, 4 (9), 091508-15

[3] Dagar, J.; Castro-Hermosa, S.; Gasbarri, M.; Palma, A. L.; Cina, L.; Matteocci, F.; Calabrò, E.; Di Carlo, A.; Brown, T. M. Efficient Fully Laser-Patterned Flexible Perovskite Modules and Solar Cells Based on Low-Temperature Solution-Processed SnO2/Mesoporous-TiO2 Electron Transport Layers. Nano Res. 2018, 11 (5), 2669–2681

[4] Castro-Hermosa, S.; Dagar, J.; Marsella, A.; Brown, T. M. Perovskite Solar Cells on Paper and the Role of Substrates and Electrodes on Performance. IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2017, 38 (9), 1278–1281

Acknowledgements:

We thank Francesco Di Giacomo, Dr. Francesca Brunetti, and Prof. Andrea Reale for useful discussions. We thank the Departamento del Huila’s Scholarship Program No. 677 from Huila, Colombia, MIUR for PRIN 2012 (2012A4Z2RY) ‘‘AQUASOL’’ (Celle solari polimeriche processabili da mezzi acquosi: dai materiali ai moduli fotovoltaici), for PERSEO‐ “PERrovskite‐based Solar cells: towards high Efficiency and lOng‐term stability” (Bando PRIN 2015‐Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research (MIUR) Decreto Direttoriale 4 novembre 2015 n. 2488, project number 20155LECAJ), and the EU CHEETAH project for funding.

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