A Novel Annealing-Free Amorphous Inorganic Metal Oxyhydroxide Cathode Interlayer for Efficient and Stable Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

The state-of-the-art high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with inverted p-i-n device structure normally use crystalline metal oxide materials or organic small molecules as the cathode interlayer between the fullerene layer and metal electrode. However, these interlayers are made by either high-temperature or complicated vacuum-assisted fabrication process, and in many cases, they are not efficient and effective enough to simultaneously extract the electrons and suppress the interfacial charge recombination. Herein, for the first time, a facile low-temperature solution-processed strategy is demonstrated to fabricate an amorphous metal oxyhydroxide (a-MOH) thin film, which is used as a robust cathode interlayer in inverted PSCs. The a-MOH interlayer not only facilitates electron extraction and collection via energy-favorable electron tunneling, but also suppresses the interfacial charge recombination via effective hole blocking and electron backflow inhibition. As a result, the PSCs based on a-MOH interlayer achieve a stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.1% and retain 93% of initial PCE after continuous one-sun illumination for 500 hours.

Automated summary

The research demonstrates a simple low-temperature solution-processed strategy for the first time to fabricate an amorphous metal oxyhydroxide (a-MOH) thin film, which is used as a robust cathode interlayer in inverted PSCs. The a-MOH interlayer not only facilitates electron extraction and collection through energy-favorable electron tunneling, but also suppresses interfacial charge recombination through effective hole blocking and electron backflow inhibition.