Soichiro Tanaka

Inorganic hole conductor-based lead halide perovskite solar cells with 12.4% conversion efficiency

Organo-lead halide perovskites have attracted much attention for solar cell applications due to their unique optical and electrical properties. With either low-temperature solution processing or vacuum evaporation, the overall conversion efficiencies of perovskite solar cells with organic hole-transporting material were quickly improved to over 15% during the last 2 years. However, the organic hole-transporting materials used are normally quite expensive due to complicated synthetic procedure or high-purity requirement. Here, we demonstrate the application of an effective and cheap inorganic p-type hole-transporting material, copper thiocyanate, on lead halide perovskite-based devices. With low-temperature solution-process deposition method, a power conversion efficiency of 12.4% was achieved under full sun illumination. This work represents a well-defined cell configuration with optimized perovskite morphology by two times of lead iodide deposition, and opens the door for integration of a class of abundant and inexpensive material for photovoltaic application.

Carbon-Double-Bond-Free Printed Solar Cells from TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3/CuSCN/Au: Structural Control and Photoaging Effects

Carbon double bond-free printed solar cells have been fabricated with the structure <F-doped SnO2 (FTO)/dense TiO2/nanocrystalline TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3/Au> and <FTO/dense TiO2/nanocrystalline TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3/CuSCN/Au>, in which CuSCN acts as a hole conductor. The thickness of the CH3NH3PbI3 layer is controlled by a hot air flow during spin coating. The best conversion efficiency (4.86%) is obtained with <FTO/dense TiO2/nanocrystalline TiO2/thin CH3NH3PbI3 (hot-air dried)/CuSCN/Au>. However, a thick CH3NH3PbI3 layer on CuSCN is better for light-exposure stability (100 mW cm(-2) AM 1.5) when not encapsulated. Without the CuSCN coverage, the black CH3NH3PbI3 crystal changes to yellow during the light-exposure stability test, which is due to the transformation of the CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite crystal into hexagonal PbI2.

Lead-Halide Perovskite Solar Cells by CH3NH3I Dripping on PbI2–CH3NH3I–DMSO Precursor Layer for Planar and Porous Structures Using CuSCN Hole-Transporting Material

The sequential fabrication scheme of the CH3NH3PbI3 layer has been improved to fabricate planar-structure CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells using CuSCN hole-transporting material (HTM). In the PbI2 layer fabricated by the spin-coating method, at first, small amounts of CH3NH3I (MAI) and DMSO were incorporated as the first-drip precursor layer on a flat TiO2 layer. On the first-drip precursor layers, an MAI solution was applied by either soaking (MAI-soaking method) or dripping using successive spin coating (MAI-dripping). The morphology and crystal transformations were observed by SEM and XRD, respectively. Using the normal sequential MAI-soaking method, we were unable to fabricate planar CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells with CuSCN HTM. Using the MAI-dripping method, however, a significant photovoltaic effect has been observed to be planar solar cells.

Double functions of porous TiO2 electrodes on CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells: Enhancement of perovskite crystal transformation and prohibition of short circuiting

In order to analyze the crystal transformation from hexagonal PbI2 to CH3NH3PbI3 by the sequential (two-step) deposition process, perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 layers were deposited on flat and/or porous TiO2 layers. Although the narrower pores using small nanoparticles prohibited the effective transformation, the porous-TiO2 matrix was able to help the crystal transformation of PbI2 to CH3NH3PbI3 by sequential two-step deposition. The resulting PbI2 crystals in porous TiO2 electrodes did not deteriorate the photovoltaic effects. Moreover, it is confirmed that the porous TiO2 electrode had served the function of prohibiting short circuits between working and counter electrodes in perovskite solar cells.

Light stability tests of methylammonium and formamidinium Pb-halide perovskites for solar cell applications

We have prepared perovskite [CH3NH3PbI3 (MALI), CH3NH3PbBr3 (MALB), NH2CH=NH2PbI3 (FALI), and NH2CH=NH2PbBr3 (FALB)] thin films by a one-step process on glass/TiO2 and glass/Al2O3 substrates and studied the stability of the perovskite under UV/visible light radiation up to 24 h at 1.5AM in air. After irradiation, the films were characterized by UV–vis absorption and X-ray diffraction measurements. In addition, photovoltaic performance characteristics in air were studied using different perovskites before (0 h) and after 24 h irradiation. The results revealed that Al2O3 protected the perovskite crystal from degradation. However, the perovskites were unstable except for NH2CH=NH2PbI3 under the same conditions using a TiO2 scaffold layer.