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Enhanced electron extraction using SnO2 for high-efficiency planar-structure HC(NH2)2PbI3-based perovskite solar cells

Nature Energy volume 2, Article number: 16177 (2017) Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 03 April 2017

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Abstract

Planar structures for halide perovskite solar cells have recently garnered attention, due to their simple and low-temperature device fabrication processing. Unfortunately, planar structures typically show I–V  hysteresis and lower stable device efficiency compared with mesoporous structures, especially for TiO2-based n-i-p devices. SnO2, which has a deeper conduction band and higher electron mobility compared with traditional TiO2, could enhance charge transfer from perovskite to electron transport layers, and reduce charge accumulation at the interface. Here we report low-temperature solution-processed SnO2 nanoparticles as an efficient electron transport layer for perovskite solar cells. Our SnO2-based devices are almost free of hysteresis, which we propose is due to the enhancement of electron extraction. By introducing a PbI2 passivation phase in the perovskite layer, we obtain a 19.9 ± 0.6% certified efficiency. The devices can be easily processed under low temperature (150 ∘C), offering an efficient method for the large-scale production of perovskite solar cells.

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Figure 1: Properties of SnO2 nanoparticles.
Figure 2: Band structure properties of SnO2 and TiO2 nanoparticles and the perovskite layer.
Figure 3: Charge transport properties between metal oxide and perovskite layer.
Figure 4: Morphology and structure of the perovskite and its device structure.
Figure 5: Device performance of perovskite solar cells with the structure glass/ITO/SnO2/perovskite/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au.
Figure 6: Charge transfer in the devices with different electron transport layers.

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  • 14 July 2017

    In the PDF version of this article previously published, the year of publication provided in the footer of each page and in the 'How to cite' section was erroneously given as 2017, it should have been 2016. This error has now been corrected. The HTML version of the article was not affected.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National 1000 Young Talents awards, National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB0700700) and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Grant No. Z151100003515004), and also by National Science Foundation (NSF, 61574133). The authors would like to thank Yang (Michael) Yang from Zhejiang University for help with transit photocurrent and photovoltage measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab of Semiconductor Materials Science, Beijing Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Semiconductor Materials and Devices, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China

    Qi Jiang, Liuqi Zhang, Haolin Wang, Xiaolei Yang, Junhua Meng, Heng Liu, Zhigang Yin, Jinliang Wu, Xingwang Zhang & Jingbi You

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  1. Qi Jiang
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Contributions

J.Y. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. Q.J. performed and was involved in all the experimental parts. H.W. carried out TEM measurements, L.Z., X.Y., J.M., H.L., Z.Y. and J.W. contributed materials and analysis tools. Q.J., J.Y. and X.Z. co-wrote the paper. J.Y. and X.Z. directed and supervised this project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xingwang Zhang or Jingbi You.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–19, Supplementary Tables 1–3 and Supplementary References. (PDF 3418 kb)

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Jiang, Q., Zhang, L., Wang, H. et al. Enhanced electron extraction using SnO2 for high-efficiency planar-structure HC(NH2)2PbI3-based perovskite solar cells. Nat Energy 2, 16177 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.177

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