Thermal oxidation of sputtered nickel nano-film as hole transport layer for high performance perovskite solar cells

Mustafa Aboulsaad,Ayman El Tahan,Said El-Sheikh,Shaker Ebrahim,Moataz Soliman

doi:10.1007/s10854-019-02345-2

Abstract

The effect of rapid oxidation temperature on the sputtered nickel (Ni) films to act as a hole transport layer (HTL) for perovskite solar cell (PSCs) was investigated. A nano-sputtered Ni film with a thickness about 100 nm was oxidized at a range of different oxidation temperatures between 350 and 650 °C to work as HTL in an inverted p–i–n configuration. DC Hall measurement in van der Pauw configuration and photoluminescence spectroscopy were used to measure the charge’s mobility and extraction of nickel oxide (NiO) films. The behaviour of the carrier concentration measurements of NiO layers at different oxidation temperatures showed that the Ni layer oxidized at 450 °C had the highest carrier concentration among the other samples. The performance measurements of the fabricated PSCs showed that the nickel oxide hole-transporting layer which has been oxidized at the optimum oxidation temperature of 450 °C has the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.05%. Moreover, the characteristic parameters of the optimum cell such as the open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current density (JSC) and fill factor (FF) were 0.92 V, 19.80 mA/cm2 and 0.331, respectively.

Highlights

Perovskite materials can change their properties over the main three classifications of materials; conductor, insulator and semiconductor. They are denoted by A BX3 structure as three different materials that can be combined with certain structure [1]
Due to the instability of the liquid electrolyte in solar cells, there are attempts to replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid material or quasi-solid material as was done in the dye-sensitized solar cells [6]
The aim of this work is to homogenize a physical sputter of Ni layers which act as hole transporting layer (HTL) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by oxidizing them at different temperatures

Summary

Introduction

Perovskite materials can change their properties over the main three classifications of materials; conductor, insulator and semiconductor. They are denoted by A BX3 structure as three different materials that can be combined with certain structure [1]. Metal halide perovskites as dyes under illumination can generate and transport of charge carriers in the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) [1]. A hole transporting layer (HTL) is used instead of liquid electrolyte to extract hole carriers and transport them into the electrode [7, 8].

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Conclusion