Boosting the Conversion Efficiency Over 20% in MAPbI(3) Perovskite Planar Solar Cells by Employing a Solution-Processed Aluminum-Doped Nickel Oxide Hole Collector

Abstract

Recently, nickel oxide (NiOx) thin films have been used as an efficient and robust hole transport layer (HTL) in inverted planar perovskite solar cells (IP-PSCs) to replace costly and unstable organic transport materials. However, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of most IP-PSCs using NiOx HTLs is rather limited below 20% due to insufficient electronic conductivity of the NiOx. In this work, solution-processed Al-doped NiOx (ANO) films are suggested as HTLs for low-cost and stable IP-PSCs. The electrical conductivity of the NiOx film is significantly enhanced by Al doping, which effectively reduces the nonradiative recombination losses at the HTL-perovskite interfaces and boosts hole extraction/transportation. The device with undoped NiOx shows the best PCE of 16.56%, whereas ANO HTL (5% doping) contributes to achieving a PCE of 20.84%, which outperforms other CH3NH3PbI3 IP-PSCs with NiOx-based HTLs reported to date. Moreover, a reliability test (1728 h storage) shows that the performance stability is enhanced by approximately 11% by employing ANO HTLs. This investigation into ANO HTLs provides a new guideline for the further development of highly efficient and reliable IP-PSCs using low-cost and robust metal oxide HTLs.