[6,6]-Phenyl-C 61 -Butyric Acid Methyl Ester/Cerium Oxide Bilayer Structure as Efficient and Stable Electron Transport Layer for Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

• Published in: ACS nano 2018-03, Vol.12 (3), p.2403-2414
• Main Authors: Fang, Rui, Wu, Shaohang, Chen, Weitao, Liu, Zonghao, Zhang, Shasha, Chen, Rui, Yue, Youfeng, Deng, Linlong, Cheng, Yi-Bing, Han, Liyuan, Chen, Wei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b07754

Stability issues and high material cost constitute the biggest obstacles of a perovskite solar cell (PVSC), hampering its sustainable development. Herein, we demonstrate that, after suitable surface modification, the low-cost cerium oxide (CeO ) nanocrystals can be well dispersed in both polar and nonpolar solvents and easily processed into high-quality electron transport layers (ETLs). The inverted PVSC with the configuration of "NiMgLiO/MAPbI /[6,6]-phenyl-C -butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)/CeO " has achieved a high efficiency up to 18.7%. Especially, the corresponding devices without encapsulation can almost keep their initial PCEs in 30% humidity-controlled air in the dark for 30 days and also show no sign of degradation after continuous light soaking and maximum power point tracking for 200 h in a N atmosphere. These results have been proved to be associated with the dual functions achieved by the PCBM/CeO bilayer ETLs in both efficient electron extraction and good chemical shielding. Furthermore, an all inorganic interfacial layer based PVSC with the configuration of "NiMgLiO/MAPbI /CeO " has also achieved a promising efficiency of 16.7%, reflecting the potential to fabricate efficient PVSCs with extremely low cost.