Carbon-based, novel triple cation mesoscopic perovskite solar cell fabricated entirely under ambient air conditions

In the past, various reports on Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs) have presented significant results. However, due to stability issues, scale-up drawbacks and high fabrication costs, scientists turned their focus on PSCs with a simpler structure, based on carbon electrodes. In this work, we report a carbon-based PSC, embedding a novel, triple cation perovskite, created after combining Methylammonium Iodide (MAI), 5-Aminovaleric Acid Iodide (5-AVAI) and Lead(II) Iodide (PbI2) along with Phenethylammonium Iodide (PEAI) salt. In our Hole Transport Layer (HTL) free device, the perovskite was infiltrated through the conductive porous carbon cathode layer, which is deposited on top of compact/mesoporous TiO2 (c-TiO2/mpTiO(2)) and mesoporous insulating ZrO2 (mp-ZrO2) layers, with all processes being carried out under ambient conditions and high relative humidity (40-60%). Finally, the perovskite films (5-AVA)(x)(MA)(1-x)PbI3 and (5-AVA)(x)(PEA)(x)(MA)(1-x)PbI3+x are optically/structurally characterized and the electrical performance of the corresponding devices is examined. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.