Conformal quantum dot–SnO <sub>2</sub> layers as electron transporters for efficient perovskite solar cells
Minjin Kim, Jaeki Jeong, Haizhou Lu, Tae Kyung Lee, Felix T. Eickemeyer, Yuhang Liu, In Woo Choi, Seung Ju Choi, Yimhyun Jo, Hak-Beom Kim, Sung-In Mo, Young-Ki Kim, Heunjeong Lee, Na Gyeong An, Shinuk Cho, Wolfgang R. Tress, Shaik M. Zakeeruddin, Anders Hagfeldt, Jin Young Kim, Michael Grätzel, Dong Suk Kim
Abstract
Improvements to perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have focused on increasing their power conversion efficiency (PCE) and operational stability and maintaining high performance upon scale-up to module sizes. We report that replacing the commonly used mesoporous–titanium dioxide electron transport layer (ETL) with a thin layer of polyacrylic acid–stabilized tin(IV) oxide quantum dots (paa-QD-SnO 2 ) on the compact–titanium dioxide enhanced light capture and largely suppressed nonradiative recombination at the ETL–perovskite interface. The use of paa-QD-SnO 2 as electron-selective contact enabled PSCs (0.08 square centimeters) with a PCE of 25.7% (certified 25.4%) and high operational stability and facilitated the scale-up of the PSCs to larger areas. PCEs of 23.3, 21.7, and 20.6% were achieved for PSCs with active areas of 1, 20, and 64 square centimeters, respectively.