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Perovskite solar cells employing organic charge-transport layers

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 128–132 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Thin-film photovoltaics play an important role in the quest for clean renewable energy. Recently, methylammonium lead halide perovskites were identified as promising absorbers for solar cells1. In the three years since, the performance of perovskite-based solar cells has improved rapidly to reach efficiencies as high as 15%1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. To date, all high-efficiency perovskite solar cells reported make use of a (mesoscopic) metal oxide, such as Al2O3, TiO2 or ZrO2, which requires a high-temperature sintering process. Here, we show that methylammonium lead iodide perovskite layers, when sandwiched between two thin organic charge-transporting layers, also lead to solar cells with high power-conversion efficiencies (12%). To ensure a high purity, the perovskite layers were prepared by sublimation in a high-vacuum chamber. This simple planar device structure and the room-temperature deposition processes are suitable for many conducting substrates, including plastic and textiles.

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Figure 1: Characteristics of the sublimed CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite layer.
Figure 2: Schematics of the device.
Figure 3: Typical J–V and IPCE characteristics of the perovskite solar cell.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Soriano-Portillo, J. Ferrando, A. K. Chandiran and E. Ortí for their assistance with the sample preparation and characterization, and careful proofreading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (ORION, Grant 229036 and NANOMATCELL, Grant 308997), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MAT2011-24594), the Generalitat Valenciana (Prometeo/2012/053) and the Global Research Laboratory Program, Korea (GLOBASOL, Grant 309194).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciencia Molecular, Universidad de Valencia, C/Catedrático J. Beltrán 2, Paterna (Valencia), 46980, Spain

    Olga Malinkiewicz, Guillermo Mínguez Espallargas & Henk J. Bolink

  2. Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Station 6, Lausanne, CH 1015, Switzerland

    Aswani Yella, Yong Hui Lee, Michael Graetzel & Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin

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  1. Olga Malinkiewicz
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  3. Yong Hui Lee
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  4. Guillermo Mínguez Espallargas
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  6. Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin
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Contributions

O.M. designed, prepared and characterized the devices, A.Y. and Y.H.L. characterized the devices, G.M.E. supervised the X-ray characterization and interpretation, M.G. supervised the work and wrote the manuscript, M.K.N. initiated the research, provided key materials and wrote the manuscript, H.J.B initiated the research, designed the devices, supervised the work and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin or Henk J. Bolink.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Malinkiewicz, O., Yella, A., Lee, Y. et al. Perovskite solar cells employing organic charge-transport layers. Nature Photon 8, 128–132 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.341

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