Low-temperature SnO2-based electron selective contact for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

We demonstrated SnO2 films prepared by sinter-less spin-coating processes as an electron selective contact for CH3NH3PbI3-based planar-heterojunction perovskite solar cells (PSCs). A modified sequential deposition method, in which the grain size of PbI2 precursors was controlled by an equivalent solvent vapor annealing (SVA) process, was used to prepare the perovskite layer on SnO2. With this SVA process, the remnant PbI2 nanocrystals can stably occur at the interface of CH3NH3PbI3/SnO2 to carry out a passivation effect. The photovoltaic performance of SnO2-based PSCs is dependent on both the SVA time and the thickness of the perovskite layer. The optimized PSC device achieves the best power conversion efficiency of up to 13% under the AM 1.5 simulated sunlight illumination, which is highly durable over 30 days of storage time with exposure to the ambient air environment.