Research Progress on Inorganic Buffer Layer Materials in Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells

Abstract

Organic-Inorganic hybrid solar cells combine the advantages of organic and inorganic semiconductors, and pos- sess promising application prospect. Although the active layer in hybrid solar cells is the most important, the electrode buffer layers, including cathode buffer layer and anode buffer layer, have a great influence on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the cells. Inorganic semiconductors are often used as the electrode buffer layers because of their high chemical sta- bility, high carrier mobility, and high transparency. TiO2 and ZnO are the most widely used inorganic electron transport layer materials while inorganic hole transport layer materials, such as CuI, CuSCN and NiO, have been applied frequently in or- ganic-inorganic hybrid solar cells. Here, we briefly review the progress on inorganic buffer layer materials in hybrid solar cells.