High performance planar p-i-n perovskite solar cells based on a thin Alq3 cathode buffer layer

Lijia Chen; Gang Wang; Lianbin Niu; Yanqing Yao; Yunxia Guan; Yuting Cui; Qunliang Song

doi:10.1039/c8ra01633j

High performance planar p-i-n perovskite solar cells based on a thin Alq₃ cathode buffer layer

RSC Adv. 2018 Apr 30;8(29):15961-15966. doi: 10.1039/c8ra01633j. eCollection 2018 Apr 27.

Authors

Lijia Chen¹, Gang Wang^{2

3}, Lianbin Niu¹, Yanqing Yao^{2

3}, Yunxia Guan¹, Yuting Cui¹, Qunliang Song^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Chongqing Normal University Chongqing 401331 P. R. China.
² Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials, Faculty of Materials and Energy, Southwest University Chongqing 400715 P. R. China qlsong@swu.edu.cn.
³ Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Technologies of Clean Energy Chongqing 400715 P. R. China.

Abstract

As a thin cathode buffer layer (CBL) tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline), aluminum (Alq₃) is successfully introduced into the planar p-i-n perovskite solar cells (PSC) between the PCBM layer and cathode with a device structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/CH₃NH₃PbI₃(Cl)/PCBM/Alq₃/Ag. Due to the as-introduced thin Alq₃ CBL, a high performance planar PSC has been achieved with a fill factor (FF) of 72% and maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.22%. The PCE value is approximately 29% higher than that of the reference device without Alq₃ CBL. Concerning the results of AC impedance spectra and transient photocurrent measurements, such a remarkable improvement of PCE is mainly attributed to the Alq₃-caused better charge-extraction at the cathode, which is induced by reducing charge accumulation between PCBM and Ag.