In-situ monitored chemical bath deposition of planar NiOx layer for inverted perovskite solar cell with enhanced efficiency

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2022.05.038

Abstract

Abstract:

As a convenient, low-cost and up-scalable solution route, chemical bath deposition (CBD) has exhibited impressive advantages in fabricating electron transporting materials like SnO₂, achieving record efficiencies for regular n-i-p perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, for the hysteresis-free and potentially more stable inverted p-i-n PSCs, CBD processing is rarely studied to improve the device performance. In this work, we first present a CBD planar NiO_x film as the efficient hole transport layer for the inverted perovskite solar cells (IPSCs). The morphologies and semiconducting properties of the NiO_x film can be adjusted by varying the concentration of [Ni(H₂O)_x(NH₃)_6-_x]²⁺ cation via in-situ monitoring of the CBD reaction process. The characterizations of ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, transient absorption spectroscopy, time-resolved photoluminescence suggest that the CBD planar NiO_x film possesses enhanced conductivity and aligned energy band levels with perovskite, which benefits for the charge transport in the IPSCs. The devices based on planar NiO_x at 50 °C and low nickel precursor concentration achieved an enhanced efficiency from 16.14% to 18.17%. This work established an efficient CBD route to fabricate planar NiO_x film for PSCs and paved the way for high performance PSCs with CBD-prepared hole transporting materials.

Key words: Nickel oxide, Perovskite solar cell, Chemical bath deposition, NiO_x film

Liqi Li, Wenjian Shen, Chenquan Yang, Yuxi Dou, Xuehao Zhu, Yao Dong, Juan Zhao, Junyan Xiao, Fuzhi Huang, Yi-Bing Cheng, Jie Zhong. In-situ monitored chemical bath deposition of planar NiO_x layer for inverted perovskite solar cell with enhanced efficiency[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2023, 133: 145-153.

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of CBD process for the deposition of NiOx thin film and the assembly of the inverted perovskite solar cells. The inserted is the in-situ absorbance observation for the precursor during CBD of NiOx.

Fig. 2. (a) UV-vis absorption patterns of [Ni(H2O)6]2+ ions with different deposition of NiOx precursor concentrations. (b) Fitted peaks curves of the UV-vis absorption when the reaction reached equilibrium by adding ammonia water at 20 °C and C0.25 concentration. (c) In-situ absorption intensity patterns of CBD precursor at different time during the reaction for the C1 solution deposited at 20 °C. (d) In-situ absorption intensity patterns of CBD precursor at different time during the reaction for the C0.25 solution deposited at 20 °C. (e) P1, P2, and P3 peak position shift patterns at different pH values.

Fig. 3. In-situ UV-vis absorption patterns at 580-590 nm region for [Ni(H2O)6?x(NH3)x]2+ ion in the CBD solution. (a) Samples with different concentrations at 50 °C, (b) different concentrations at room temperature and (c) different temperatures of C0.5 concentration. (d) UV-vis intensity pattern over time of high-rate reaction processes. The SEM images of NiOx films of H20-C1 (e) and H50-C1 (f). (g) UV-vis absorption intensity pattern of low-rate reaction processes. The SEM images of NiOx film under (h) L50-C0.5 and (i) L50-C0.25 condition.

Fig. 4. (a) TG-DSC curves of centrifuged sediments from the CBD solutions. (b) XRD patterns of powders before and after annealing. (c) FTIR spectra of powders before and after annealing. The XPS spectra of NiOx film for (d) Ni 2p3/2 and (e) O 1s. (f) UPS spectra of NiOx samples prepared at different CBD processing.

Fig. 5. Pseudo-color (ΔA) representation of TAS spectra for (a) L50-C0.5 NiOx/PSK and (b) H20-C1 NiOx/PSK. TAS at different pump-probe delay time for (c) L50-C0.5 NiOx/PSK and (d) H20-C1 NiOx/PSK. Decay associate spectra (DAS) obtained from global fit for (e) L50-C0.5 NiOx/PSK and (f) H20-C1 NiOx/PSK. (g) PL spectra of the PSK films deposited on NiOx HTLs. (h) The TRPL spectra of the PSK films deposited on NiOx HTLs. (i) SCLC measurements for the hole-only devices in the dark.

Fig. 6. (a) EIS, (b) champion J-V curves, (c) EQE curves and (d) SPO curves of IPSC devices based on the H20-C1 and L50-C0.5. (e) Long-term SPO test for IPSC device with L50-C0.5 NiOx.

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