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Efficient inorganic–organic hybrid heterojunction solar cells containing perovskite compound and polymeric hole conductors

Nature Photonics volume 7, pages 486–491 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Inorganic–organic hybrid structures have become innovative alternatives for next-generation dye-sensitized solar cells, because they combine the advantages of both systems. Here, we introduce a layered sandwich-type architecture, the core of which comprises a bicontinuous three-dimensional nanocomposite of mesoporous (mp)-TiO2, with CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite as light harvester, as well as a polymeric hole conductor. This platform creates new opportunities for the development of low-cost, solution-processed, high-efficiency solar cells. The use of a polymeric hole conductor, especially poly-triarylamine, substantially improves the open-circuit voltage Voc and fill factor of the cells. Solar cells based on these inorganic–organic hybrids exhibit a short-circuit current density Jsc of 16.5 mA cm−2, Voc of 0.997 V and fill factor of 0.727, yielding a power conversion efficiency of 12.0% under standard AM 1.5 conditions.

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Figure 1: SEM images, general scheme and energy level diagram of a cell.
Figure 2: J–V, diffuse reflectance and IPCE characteristics.
Figure 3: J–V and IPCE characteristics for the best cells, and reproducibility.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Global Research Laboratory (GRL) Program, the Global Frontier R&D Program at the Center for Multiscale Energy System funded by the National Research Foundation in Korea, and by a grant from the KRICT 2020 Program for Future Technology of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Republic of Korea. M.G. expresses his gratitude to the European Research Council (ERC) for supporting part of this work under an advanced research grant (no. 247404, MESOLIGHT).

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Author notes

  1. Jin Hyuck Heo, Sang Hyuk Im and Jun Hong Noh: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Advanced Materials, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, 141 Gajeong-Ro, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, 305-600, Korea

    Jin Hyuck Heo, Sang Hyuk Im, Jun Hong Noh, Tarak N. Mandal, Choong-Sun Lim, Jeong Ah Chang, Yong Hui Lee, Hi-jung Kim, Arpita Sarkar & Sang Il Seok

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, 1 Seochon-dong, Giheung-gu, Youngin-si, 446-701, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

    Sang Hyuk Im

  3. Laboratory for Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, School of Basic Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland

    Md. K. Nazeeruddin & Michael Grätzel

  4. Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 440-746, Korea

    Sang Il Seok

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  1. Jin Hyuck Heo
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Contributions

S.I.S. and S.H.I. conceived the experiments, carried out data analysis and prepared the manuscript. M.G. and M.K.N. contributed to the analysis of data and revision of the manuscript. J.H.H., J.H.N. and S.H.I carried out preparation of the devices and device performance measurements. T.N.M. and C.-S.L. synthesized materials for CH3NH3PbI3 and S.I.S prepared TiO2 pastes for the electrodes. Y.H.L., H.J.K. and A.S. prepared the mesoporous electrode. J.A.C. fabricated test specimens for comparisons. S.I.S. and M.G directed the study. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Michael Grätzel or Sang Il Seok.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Heo, J., Im, S., Noh, J. et al. Efficient inorganic–organic hybrid heterojunction solar cells containing perovskite compound and polymeric hole conductors. Nature Photon 7, 486–491 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.80

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