Efficient planar heterojunction perovskite solar
cells employing graphene oxide as hole conductor†
Zhongwei Wu,
a
Sai Bai,
b
Jian Xiang,
a
Zhongcheng Yuan,
a
Yingguo Yang,
c
Wei Cui,
a
Xingyu Gao,
c
Zhuang Liu,
a
Yizheng Jin
b
and Baoquan Sun
*
a
Graphene oxide (GO) is employed as a hole conductor in inverted
planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells, and the devices with
CH
3
NH
3
PbI
3x
Cl
x
as absorber achieve an efficiency of over 12%. The
perovskite film grown on GO exhibits enhanced crystallization, high
surface coverage ratio as well as preferred in-plane orientation of the
(110) plane. Efficient hole extraction from the perovskite to GO is
demonstrated.
Introduction
Solution-processable solar cells are attractive because of their
cost- and energy-efficient merits for large-scale and exible
applications compared with the established crystalline silicon
photovoltaics.
1
Organic solar cells (OPV) and dye sensitized
solar cells (DSSC) are two signicant representatives, and
tremendous efforts have been undertaken to improve their
power conversion efficiency (PCE). Nowadays, both of them can
achieve over 10% efficiencies by comprehensive material
design, structure optimization and molecule engineering.
2–5
However, perovskite-based solar cells with an encouraging
efficiency of over 15% are becoming important players in the
eld of photovoltaics,
6,7
and have been considered as feasible
candidates that can address the low-cost solution process and
outstanding efficiency simultaneously.
8,9
Organometal halide perovskite, with a direct band gap, large
absorption coefficient and high carrier mobility, was rst used
in a DSSC as a sensitizer, and the device achieved an efficiency
of 3.81%.
10
However, this type of device exhibited poor stability
because of the dissolution of the sensitizer by the liquid elec-
trolyte. Subsequently, replacing the electrolyte with a solid
organic conductor improved device performance and
stability,
11–14
and even boosted the efficiency to over 10%. Since
then, 12–15% efficiencies were frequently achieved by material
and structure optimization.
15–18
The high performance of the
device was attributed to the long electron–hole diffusion
lengths exceeding 1 mm and 100 nm in CH
3
NH
3
PbI
2
Cl and
CH
3
NH
3
PbI
3
lms, respectively,
19,20
which were considerably
longer than the exciton diffusion lengths in conjugated poly-
mers. Such long electron–hole diffusion length justies the
high performance of the planar heterojunction (PHJ) perovskite
solar cell.
Two architectures are symbiotic in the perovskite-based solar
cell: meso-superstructured and PHJ perovskite solar cells. The
meso-superstructured device consists of a metal-oxide (such as
TiO
2
,Al
2
O
3
) scaffold inltrated with perovskite. Although the
meso-superstuctured device has champion efficiency, the
homogeneous inltration of the perovskite precursor remains
an issue, which results in a large standard deviation in the meso-
superstuctured device.
11,15
The PHJ structure, a perovskite
absorber sandwiched between electron and hole conductors,
avoids the pore lling problem and simplies the device fabri-
cation process without sacricing efficiency compared to the
meso-superstructured device.
18,21,22
In the PHJ structure, the
conductor (also called n- or p-type quencher) plays a critical role
in the working mechanism of the device. An efficient conductor
assures charge transfer at the cathode or anode interface,
thereby selectively guiding charge transport to the correspond-
ing electrode. Although some conductor-free (hole or electron
conductor) devices were demonstrated, their PCEs remained
mediocre.
23,24
Known from the originally emerged PHJ perov-
skite solar cell with a structure of uorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/
TiO
2
/perovskite/2-7,7
0
-tet rakis (N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-
a
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Institute of
Functional Nano & So Materials (FUNSOM) and Collaborative Innovation Center of
Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, 199 Ren'ai Road, Suzhou,
215123, People's Republic of China. E-mail: bqsun@suda.edu.cn
b
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Cyrus Tang Center for Sensor Materials and
Applications, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China
c
Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, 239 Zhangheng Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai
201204, People's Republic of China
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional device
cross-section, GO morphologies on ITO, transmittance of different substrates,
morphologies and absorbances of perovskite lms on different substrates and
electrical characterization of devices with different hole conductors. See DOI:
10.1039/c4nr03181d
Cite this: DOI: 10.1039/c4nr03181d
Received 10th June 2014
Accepted 7th July 2014
DOI: 10.1039/c4nr03181d
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