Issue

Vol. 16 (2024)

TiO2 Electron Transport Layer with p–n Homojunctions for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01407-3
Wenhao Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Pengfei Guo
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Jiahao Wu
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Deyou Lin
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Ning Jia
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Zhiyu Fang
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Chong Liu
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Qian Ye
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Jijun Zou
Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, People’s Republic of China
Yuanyuan Zhou
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China
Hongqiang Wang
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene (NPU), Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Hongqiang Wang

hongqiang.wang@nwpu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 16 (2024), Article Number: 191

Abstract

Low-temperature processed electron transport layer (ETL) of TiO2 that is widely used in planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has inherent low carrier mobility, resulting in insufficient photogenerated electron transport and thus recombination loss at buried interface. Herein, we demonstrate an effective strategy of laser embedding of p-n homojunctions in the TiO2 ETL to accelerate electron transport in PSCs, through localized build-in electric fields that enables boosted electron mobility by two orders of magnitude. Such embedding is found significantly helpful for not only the enhanced crystallization quality of TiO2 ETL, but the fabrication of perovskite films with larger-grain and the less-trap-states. The embedded p–n homojunction enables also the modulation of interfacial energy level between perovskite layers and ETLs, favoring for the reduced voltage deficit of PSCs. Benefiting from these merits, the formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) PSCs employing such ETLs deliver a champion efficiency of 25.50%, along with much-improved device stability under harsh conditions, i.e., maintain over 95% of their initial efficiency after operation at maximum power point under continuous heat and illumination for 500 h, as well as mixed-cation PSCs with a champion efficiency of 22.02% and over 3000 h of ambient storage under humidity stability of 40%. Present study offers new possibilities of regulating charge transport layers via p-n homojunction embedding for high performance optoelectronics.


Highlights:
1 Developing a universal strategy of the p–n homojunction engineering that could significantly boost electron mobility of electron transport layer (ETL) by two orders of magnitude.
2 Proposing a new mechanism based on p–n homojunction to explain inhibited carrier loss at buried interface.
3 Setting a new performance benchmark as high as 25.50% for planar perovskite solar cells employing TiO2 as ETLs.

Keywords

Electron transport layer p–n homojunction Electron mobility Buried interface Perovskite solar cells
Zhao, Wenhao, Pengfei Guo, Jiahao Wu, Deyou Lin, Ning Jia, Zhiyu Fang, Chong Liu, Qian Ye, Jijun Zou, Yuanyuan Zhou, and Hongqiang Wang. 2024. “TiO2 Electron Transport Layer With p–n Homojunctions for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells”. Nano-Micro Letters 16 (May):191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01407-3.
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