Simplified architecture of a fully printable perovskite solar cell using a thick zirconia layer

• Main Authors: Priyadarshi, Anish, Bashir, Amna, Gunawan, Johana Teresa, Lew, Jia Haur, Bruno, Annalisa, Akhter, Zareen, Mathews, Nripan, Mhaisalkar, Subodh Gautam
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials; Carbon; Mesoporous Materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/141103
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A fully printable, hole‐conductor‐free perovskite solar cell with a simple and low‐cost fabrication route and high stability is well placed for commercialization. We aim to simplify the fabrication process of these solar cells by replacing the mesoporous TiO2 (meso‐TiO2) layer with a thick ZrO2 layer. This new architecture required only three steps: screen‐printing first the compact TiO2 (c‐TiO2), second the mesoporous ZrO2 layer (for perovskite infiltration), and third the carbon electrode. To improve the solar cell performance of the architecture, the c‐TiO2 and ZrO2 printing process are optimized. After systematic optimization of these processes, we found that the double‐printing of the c‐TiO2 layer and an increase of the ZrO2 later thickness from 1.4 to 2.1 μm in the device structure gives an optimized efficiency of 9.69 %, which is comparable to that of standard carbon devices with meso‐TiO2. This method provides an approach to reduce the fabrication time and thermal budget for fully printable solar cells.