Carbon Electrode with Sputtered Au Coating for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) represent a lowcost and high-efficiency solar technology. However, most of the highly efficient PSCs need a noble electrode, such as Au, through thermal evaporation. It is reported that a sputtered Au electrode on a PSC could damage the organic hole transport layer (HTL) and the perovskite layer. Here, we report a simple, yet effective sputtered gold nanoparticle decorated carbon electrode to fabricate efficient and stable planar PSCs. The sputtered Au layer on the doctor bladed coated carbon electrode can be directly applied to the perovskite semicells by mechanical stacking. By optimizing the gold thickness, a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.87% was obtained for the composite electrode-based PSC, while the reference device recorded a PCE of 12.38%. The composite electrode-based device demonstrated 96% performance retention after being stored under humid conditions (50-60%) without encapsulation for similar to 100 h. This demonstrates a promising pathway toward the commercialization of large-scale manufacturable sputtered electrodes for the PSC solar module.

Automated summary

This study reports a simple and effective sputtered gold nanoparticle-decorated carbon electrode for fabricating efficient and stable planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the composite electrode-based PSC reached 16.87% by optimizing the gold thickness, while the reference device achieved a PCE of 12.38%. After being stored for 100 hours under humid conditions (50-60%) without encapsulation, the composite electrode-based device demonstrated a 96% performance retention. This demonstrates a promising pathway towards the commercialization of large-scale manufacturable sputtered electrodes for PSC solar modules.