Improved Electrical and Structural Stability in HTL-Free Perovskite Solar Cells by Vacuum Curing Treatment

Salvatore Valastro, Emanuele Smecca, Salvatore Sanzaro, Filippo Giannazzo, Ioannis Deretzis, Antonino La Magna, Youhei Numata, Ajay Kumar Jena, Tsutomu Miyasaka, Antonio Gagliano and Alessandra Alberti
Additional contact information
Salvatore Valastro: CNR-IMM, 95121 Catania, Italy
Emanuele Smecca: CNR-IMM, 95121 Catania, Italy
Salvatore Sanzaro: CNR-IMM, 95121 Catania, Italy
Filippo Giannazzo: CNR-IMM, 95121 Catania, Italy
Ioannis Deretzis: CNR-IMM, 95121 Catania, Italy
Antonino La Magna: CNR-IMM, 95121 Catania, Italy
Youhei Numata: Graduate School of Engineering, Toin University of Yokohama, Yokohama, Kanagawa 225-8503, Japan
Ajay Kumar Jena: Graduate School of Engineering, Toin University of Yokohama, Yokohama, Kanagawa 225-8503, Japan
Tsutomu Miyasaka: Graduate School of Engineering, Toin University of Yokohama, Yokohama, Kanagawa 225-8503, Japan
Antonio Gagliano: Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Alessandra Alberti: CNR-IMM, 95121 Catania, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 15, 1-11

Abstract: Device engineering with proper material integration into perovskite solar cells (PSCs) would extend their durability provided a special care is spent to retain interface integrity during use. In this paper, we propose a method to preserve the perovskite (PSK) surface from solvent-mediated modification and damage that can occur during the deposition of a top contact and furtherly during operation. Our scheme used a hole transporting layer-free top-contact made of Carbon (mostly graphite) to the side of hole extraction. We demonstrated that the PSK/graphite interface benefits from applying a vacuum-curing step after contact deposition that allowed mitigating the loss in efficiency of the solar devices, as well as a full recovery of the electrical performances after device storage in dry nitrogen and dark conditions. The device durability compared to reference devices was tested over 90 days. Conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) disclosed an improved surface capability to hole exchange under the graphite contact after vacuum curing treatment.

Keywords: photovoltaics; perovskite; durability; X-ray diffraction (XRD); CAFM; I-V (current -voltage) curve; storage; recovery; vacuum treatment; interfaces; stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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