Low-cost and Efficient Hole-Transport-Material-free perovskite solar cells employing controllable electron-transport layer based on P25 nanoparticles

A facile approach to fabricate low-cost hole-transport-material (HTM)-free perovskite solar cell(PSC) based on commercial P25 nanoparticles and bilayer hybrid carbon electrode under ambient condition is reported. The performance of such HTM-free PSCs are highly dependent on the thickness and morphology of the P25 based TiO2 electron-transport layer(ETL), which can be adjusted by the amount of ethanol and ethyl cellulose in the paste. After optimization, a power conversion efficiency of 12.48% is obtained, which is enhanced by 20.46% compared with solar cells employing hydrothermal TiO2 ETL. In addition, PSCs with P25 ETL also exhibit excellent long-term stability together with reduced hysteresis. With advantages of low-cost, high efficiency and facile fabrication process, commercial P25 nanoparticles based PSC is highly potential for future commercialization. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.