Oxidized Nickel to Prepare an Inorganic Hole Transport Layer for High-Efficiency and Stability of CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells

In this study, we report a perovskite solar cell (PSC) can be benefited from the high quality of inorganic nickel oxide (NiOx) as a hole transport layer (HTL) film fabricated from the physical vapor deposition (PVD) process. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSC is found to depend on the thickness of NiOx HTL. The NiOx thickness is optimized via quantitative investigation of the structure, optical and electrical properties. With an active area of 11.25 cm(2), a PSC module (25 cm(2)) with a PCE of 15.1% is demonstrated, while statistically averaged PCE = 18.30% with an open voltage (V-oc) 1.05 V, short-circuit current density (J(sc)) 23.89 mA/cm(2), and fill factor (FF) 72.87% can be achieved from 36 devices with smaller active areas of 0.16 cm(2). After the stability test at 40% relative humidity (RH) and 25 degrees C for 1200 h, the highest performance NiOx-based PSC is shown to be about 1.2-1.8 times superior to PEDOT:PSS organic HTL based PSC at the same environment.

Automated summary

In this study, a perovskite solar cell using inorganic nickel oxide as a hole transport layer is developed. The power conversion efficiency is improved by optimizing the thickness of the nickel oxide layer. The NiOx-based PSC exhibits superior performance compared to the PEDOT:PSS organic HTL-based PSC after stability testing.