Zirconia Spacer: Preparation by Low Temperature Spray-coating and Application in Triple-layer Perovskite Solar Cells

doi:10.15541/jim20220155

Abstract

Abstract:

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with structure of TiO₂/ZrO₂/carbon triple-layer are attractive recently because of their inexpensive raw materials, scalable fabrication process, and outstanding stability. But little progress has been made in the low temperature fabrication of TiO₂/ZrO₂/carbon triple-layer structured PSCs. A major reason is that it is rather difficult to construct the ZrO₂ spacer layer at low temperature. Herein, we report a facile low-temperature spray-coating method to prepare effective ZrO₂ spacer layer in TiO₂/ZrO₂/carbon triple-layer PSCs using urea to tune the porosity. After optimizing the amount of urea and the thickness of zirconia to 1100 nm, power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 14.7% for a single cell and 10.8% for a module with 5 cells connected in series (5×0.9 cm× 2.5 cm) were achieved. Furthermore, the PSCs could be stable for 200 d at constant temperature (25 ℃) and humidity (40%). With this spray coating method, the zirconia layer on flexible substrate can endure 50 times of bending without any cracking. Compared to the conventional screen-printing method of ZrO₂ spacer layer, the spray-coating alternative developed in this work shows advantages of more convenient to process, preparation under lower temperature, and compatibility to flexible substrate.

Key words: perovskite solar cell, triple-layer structure, low-temperature, zirconia, spray-coating

CLC Number:

TQ174

ZHANG Wanwen, LUO Jianqiang, LIU Shujuan, MA Jianguo, ZHANG Xiaoping, YANG Songwang. Zirconia Spacer: Preparation by Low Temperature Spray-coating and Application in Triple-layer Perovskite Solar Cells[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2023, 38(2): 213-218.

Figures/Tables 10

Fig. 1 Structural schematic illustration (a) and energy diagram (b) of TiO2/ZrO2/carbon triple-layer PSCs

Fig. 2 SEM images of the zirconia film prepared by spray- coating without urea (a), with w(zirconia) : w(urea)= 2 : 1 (b) and 1 : 1 (c), cross-sectional SEM images of PSCs containing zirconia layer prepared with w(zirconia) : w(urea)= 2 : 1(d) and 1 : 1 (e) Circled areas in (d) are not completely filled

Fig. 3 J-V curves of PSCs prepared with w(zirconia) : w(urea)=2 : 1 and 1 : 1(a), and J-V curves from forward and reverse scanning of PSC prepared with w(zirconia) : w(urea)=1 : 1 (Zirconia layer thickness at ~1000 nm) (b)

Fig. 4 J-V curves of the triple-layer PSCs with spray-coated and screen-printed zirconia layer(a), IPCE spectrum and corresponding integrated current density of the PSC with 1100 nm thick zirconia layer(b), PCE distribution of 30 chips with three different thicknesses of zirconia layer(c), and stabilized power output of PSCs with optimized spray-coated zirconia layer (d)

Fig. 5 Schematic illustration (a) and photograph (b) of the bending zirconia film on PET

Fig. 6 Stability performance of PSCs with screen-printed and spray-coated zirconia layer

Fig. S1 Picture of 30 cells on a hotplate with active area of 0.6 cm×0.8 cm

Fig. S2 (a) TEM image and (b) XRD pattern of the zirconia nanoparticles

Fig. S3 Cross-sectional SEM images of PSCs before filling perovskite with the zirconia thickness of (a, b) 750, (c, d) 1100 nm and (e, f) 1500 nm（(a, c, e) before and (b, d, f) after filling perovkite）

Fig. S4 (a) J-V curves of the cell with different illumination areas with inset showing the tested cell photograph; (b) J-V curve of PSCs module with five cells connected in series with inset showing the tested cell photograph

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