Journal Article

A generic interface to reduce the efficiency-stability-cost gap of perovskite solar cells

Li, Ning, Levchuk, Ievgen, Wang, Zhiping, McMeekin, David P., Chen, Haiwei, Hirsch, Andreas, Halik, Marcus, Scheiner, Simon, Richter, Moses, Stubhan, Tobias, Brabec, Christoph J., Luechinger, Norman A., Fink, Rainer H., Killian, Manuela S., Schrenker, Nadine, Du, Xiaoyan, Spiecker, Erdmann, Steinrück, Hans-Peter, Snaith, Henry J., Hou, Yi, Schmuki, Patrik

2017

Overview

A major bottleneck delaying the further commercialization of thin-film solar cells based on hybrid organohalide lead perovskites is interface loss in state-of-the-art devices. We present a generic interface architecture that combines solution-processed, reliable, and cost-efficient hole-transporting materials without compromising efficiency, stability, or scalability of perovskite solar cells. Tantalum-doped tungsten oxide (Ta-WOₓ)/conjugated polymer multilayers offer a surprisingly small interface barrier and form quasi-ohmic contacts universally with various scalable conjugated polymers. In a simple device with regular planar architecture and a self-assembled monolayer, Ta-WOₓ–doped interface–based perovskite solar cells achieve maximum efficiencies of 21.2% and offer more than 1000 hours of light stability. By eliminating additional ionic dopants, these findings open up the entire class of organics as scalable hole-transporting materials for perovskite solar cells.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science,The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: Commercialization / Contact resistance / Current carriers / Dopants / Interface stability / Interfaces / Lead / Multilayers / Perovskites / Photovoltaic cells / Polymers / Self-assembly / Solar cells / Tantalum / Tantalum oxides / Thin films / Tungsten / Tungsten oxide