Engineered surface properties of MAPI using different antisolvents for hole transport layer-free perovskite solar cell (HTL-free PSC).

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attained considerable success within just a few recent years. This accomplishment is critically based on compositional modifications and morphology engineering of perovskite material or dependent upon prepared mesoporous-titanium dioxide (mp-TiO2). However, no analysis of the antisolvent role used for crystallization of perovskite has been undertaken. Herein, we investigated the role of the antisolvent in the performance of hole transport layer (HTL)-free PSC (HTL-free PSC) based on the following sandwich structure: glass/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/compact-TiO2 (c-TiO2)/mp-TiO2/Perovskite (MAPI)/gold (Au). We studied perovskite layers with various porosities and layer thicknesses, and revealed that the generated pinholes had a major effect on the HTL-free PSC performance. A possible reason for this is that the pinhole in the MAPI layer does not allow the MAPI crystals to generate charge pathways to the TiO2 layer. The MAPI layer prepared by chlorobenzene demonstrated a compact and pinhole-free highly crystalline MAPI layer with enhanced optical and electrical characteristics. However, the MAPI layers prepared by toluene and diethyl ether suffered from severe recombination issues at the MAPI/TiO2 interconnect. The dark current/voltage (J–V) curve of the HTL-free PSC prepared using chlorobenzene shifted to higher voltage, suggesting a reduction of the backflow of charges at the interface. The J–V characteristics under illumination proved that the HTL-free PSC fabricated by chlorobenzene using as antisolvent in this study, had the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.65% along with open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Jsc), and fill factor (FF) values of 0.8335 V, 11.964 mA/cm2, and 0.56, respectively. Highlights: The impact of antisolvent on properties of HTL-free PSC has been investigated. The HTL-free PSC fabricated by toluene suffered from severe carrier recombination. The HTL-free PSC fabricated by chlorobenzene has been showed a dense and pinhole-free perovskite that exhibits reduced carrier recombination and enhanced PCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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