Issue 39, 2016

Low temperature synthesis of hierarchical TiO2 nanostructures for high performance perovskite solar cells by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

A promising way to advance perovskite solar cells is to improve the quality of the electron transport material – e.g., titanium dioxide (TiO2) – in a direction that increases electron transport and extraction. Although dense TiO2 films are easily grown in solution, efficient electron extraction suffers due to a lack of interfacial contact area with the perovskites. Conversely, mesoporous films do offer high surface-area-to-volume ratios, thereby promoting efficient electron extraction, but their morphology is relatively difficult to control via conventional solution synthesis methods. Here, a pulsed laser deposition method was used to assemble TiO2 nanoparticles into TiO2 hierarchical architectures exhibiting an anatase crystal structure, and prototype solar cells employing these structures yielded power conversion efficiencies of ∼14%. Our approach demonstrates a way to grow high aspect-ratio TiO2 nanostructures for improved interfacial contact between TiO2 and perovskite materials, leading to high electron–hole pair separation and electron extraction efficiencies for superior photovoltaic performance. Compared to previous pulsed laser deposition-synthesized TiO2 mesoporous crystalline networks that needed post-thermal annealing at 500 °C to form mesoporous crystalline networks, our relatively low temperature (300 °C) TiO2 processing method may promote reduced energy-consumption during device fabrication, as well as enable compatibility with flexible polymer substrates such as polyimide.

Graphical abstract: Low temperature synthesis of hierarchical TiO2 nanostructures for high performance perovskite solar cells by pulsed laser deposition

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
29 Apr 2016
Accepted
31 Mei 2016
First published
10 Jun 2016

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 27067-27072

Low temperature synthesis of hierarchical TiO2 nanostructures for high performance perovskite solar cells by pulsed laser deposition

B. Yang, M. Mahjouri-Samani, C. M. Rouleau, D. B. Geohegan and K. Xiao, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 27067 DOI: 10.1039/C6CP02896A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements