Improved stability of ambient air-processed methylammonium lead iodide using carbon nanotubes for perovskite solar cells

Methylammonium lead iodide (MAPI3) material is promising for use in photovoltaic (PV) cells because of its efficient optoelectrical properties. However, the ambient air processed MAPI3 layer is unstable to ZnO film mainly during the annealing process. Herein, XRD results showed that the MAPI3 layer on the top of the ZnO photoelectrode is converted into lead iodide (PbI2) because of the existence of hydroxide agents on the surface of the ZnO layer. For this reason, the MAPI(3) based PSCs showed poor power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.95 % with a hysteresis effect. In order to tackle this problem, we report here on a carbon nanotube (CNT)-incorporated MAPI3 perovskite film made in ambient air and is employed as an effective absorber layer. Our results demonstrate that optimized PSC based on CNT additive shows a PCE up to 15 %.

Automated summary

The MAPI3 layer converted to PbI2 due to the presence of hydroxide agents on the ZnO layer, leading to poor PCE of 9.95% in MAPI3-based PSCs. However, incorporating CNT additive in ambient air produced an optimized PSC with a PCE up to 15%.