TY - JOUR
T1 - Facile synthesis of composite tin oxide nanostructures for high-performance planar perovskite solar cells
AU - Singh, Mriganka
AU - Ng, Annie
AU - Ren, Zhiwei
AU - Hu, Hanlin
AU - Lin, Hong Cheu
AU - Chu, Chih Wei
AU - Li, Gang
N1 - Funding Information:
H.C.L. thanks the MOST of Taiwan (grants MOST 103-2113-M-009-018-MY3 , MOST 103-2221-E-009-215-MY3 , MOST 106-2113-M-009-012-MY3 , and MOST 107-3017-F009-003 ) and the Ministry of Education of Taiwan [SPROUT Project-Center for Emergent Functional Matter Science of National Chiao Tung University (NCTU)] for financial support. C.W.C. thanks the MOST of Taiwan (grants 104-2221-E-001-014-MY3 and 104-2221-E-009-096-MY3 ) and the Career Development Award of Academia Sinica, Taiwan ( 103-CDA-M01 ), for financial support. G.L. thanks the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (GRF grants 15246816 and 15218517 ), the Project of Strategic Importance provided by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project Code: 1-ZE29), and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (Project No. JCYJ20170413154602102 ). A.N. thanks the targeted Program BR05236524. Together, we thank Dr. K. M. Boopathi for help with the UPS and XPS measurements; Dr. L. Chen and Prof. J. H. Hao for help with the PL experiments; and L.S. Lu from NCTU for help with the AFM measurements.
Funding Information:
Annie Ng received her B.S. in Applied Physics from the City University of Hong Kong and Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong. She achieved the Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and was also appointed as a visiting lecturer in the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, PolyU. She is currently an assistant professor in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Nazarbayev University. She has been working on advanced materials for new generation solar cells. She is interested in optoelectronics, nanomaterials, light-harvesting materials and device applications.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - Metal oxide carrier transporting layers have been investigated widely in organic/inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Tin oxide (SnO 2 ) is a promising alternative to the titanium dioxide commonly used in the electron transporting layer (ETL), due to its tunable carrier concentration, high electron mobility, amenability to low-temperature annealing processing, and large energy bandgap. In this study, a facile method was developed for the preparation of a room-temperature-processed SnO 2 electron transporting material that provided a high-quality ETL, leading to PSCs displaying high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability. A novel physical ball milling method was first employed to prepare chemically pure ground SnO 2 nanoparticles (G-SnO 2 ), and a sol–gel process was used to prepare a compact SnO 2 (C-SnO 2 ) layer. The effects of various types of ETLs (C-SnO 2 , G-SnO 2 , composite G-SnO 2 /C-SnO 2 ) on the performance of the PSCs are investigated. The composite SnO 2 nanostructure formed a robust ETL having efficient carrier transport properties; accordingly, carrier recombination between the ETL and mixed perovskite was inhibited. PSCs incorporating C-SnO 2 , G-SnO 2 , and G-SnO 2 /C-SnO 2 as ETLs provided PCEs of 16.46, 17.92, and 21.09%, respectively. In addition to their high efficiency, the devices featuring the composite SnO 2 (G-SnO 2 /C-SnO 2 ) nanostructures possessed excellent long-term stability—they maintained 89% (with encapsulation) and 83% (without encapsulation) of their initial PCEs after 105 days (>2500 h) and 60 days (>1400 h), respectively, when stored under dry ambient air (20 ± 5 RH %).
AB - Metal oxide carrier transporting layers have been investigated widely in organic/inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Tin oxide (SnO 2 ) is a promising alternative to the titanium dioxide commonly used in the electron transporting layer (ETL), due to its tunable carrier concentration, high electron mobility, amenability to low-temperature annealing processing, and large energy bandgap. In this study, a facile method was developed for the preparation of a room-temperature-processed SnO 2 electron transporting material that provided a high-quality ETL, leading to PSCs displaying high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability. A novel physical ball milling method was first employed to prepare chemically pure ground SnO 2 nanoparticles (G-SnO 2 ), and a sol–gel process was used to prepare a compact SnO 2 (C-SnO 2 ) layer. The effects of various types of ETLs (C-SnO 2 , G-SnO 2 , composite G-SnO 2 /C-SnO 2 ) on the performance of the PSCs are investigated. The composite SnO 2 nanostructure formed a robust ETL having efficient carrier transport properties; accordingly, carrier recombination between the ETL and mixed perovskite was inhibited. PSCs incorporating C-SnO 2 , G-SnO 2 , and G-SnO 2 /C-SnO 2 as ETLs provided PCEs of 16.46, 17.92, and 21.09%, respectively. In addition to their high efficiency, the devices featuring the composite SnO 2 (G-SnO 2 /C-SnO 2 ) nanostructures possessed excellent long-term stability—they maintained 89% (with encapsulation) and 83% (without encapsulation) of their initial PCEs after 105 days (>2500 h) and 60 days (>1400 h), respectively, when stored under dry ambient air (20 ± 5 RH %).
KW - Ball-milling
KW - Composite nanostructure
KW - Electron transport layer
KW - Perovskite solar cells
KW - Tin oxide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063338556&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.03.044
DO - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.03.044
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85063338556
VL - 60
SP - 275
EP - 284
JO - Nano Energy
JF - Nano Energy
SN - 2211-2855
ER -