W-doped TiO2 mesoporous electron transport layer for efficient hole transport material free perovskite solar cells employing carbon counter electrodes

Abstract

Abstract Doping of TiO2 by metal elements for the scaffold layer of the perovskite solar cells has been proved to be one of the effective methods to improve the power conversion efficiency. In the present work, we report the impact of doping of TiO2 nanoparticles with different amounts of tungsten (W) on the photovoltaic properties of hole transport material free perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that employ carbon counter electrode. Light doping with W (less than 1000 ppm) improves the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of solar cells by promoting the electron conductivity in the TiO2 layer which facilitates electron transfer and collection. With the incorporation of W, average efficiency of PSCs is increased from 9.1% for the un-doped samples to 10.53% for the 1000 ppm W-doped samples, mainly originates from the increase of short circuit current density and fill factor. Our champion cell exhibits an impressive PCE of 12.06% when using the 1000 ppm W-doped TiO2 films.