Low-Temperature Processed TiOx/Zn1-xCdxS Nanocomposite for Efficient MAPbIxCl1-x Perovskite and PCDTBT:PC70BM Polymer Solar Cells

Binh Duong; Khathawut Lohawet; Tanyakorn Muangnapoh; Hideki Nakajima; Narong Chanlek; Anirudh Sharma; David A Lewis; Pisist Kumnorkaew

doi:10.3390/polym11060980

Low-Temperature Processed TiO_x/Zn_1-xCd_xS Nanocomposite for Efficient MAPbI_xCl_1-x Perovskite and PCDTBT:PC₇₀BM Polymer Solar Cells

Polymers (Basel). 2019 Jun 3;11(6):980. doi: 10.3390/polym11060980.

Authors

Binh Duong¹, Khathawut Lohawet², Tanyakorn Muangnapoh³, Hideki Nakajima⁴, Narong Chanlek⁵, Anirudh Sharma⁶, David A Lewis⁷, Pisist Kumnorkaew⁸

Affiliations

¹ National Nanotechnology Center, 111 Thailand Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Klong 1, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. bduong07@gmail.com.
² National Nanotechnology Center, 111 Thailand Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Klong 1, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. khathawut.loh@nanotec.or.th.
³ National Nanotechnology Center, 111 Thailand Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Klong 1, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. tanyakorn.mua@nanotec.or.th.
⁴ Synchrotron Light Research Institute, 111 University Avenue, Muang District, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand. hideki@slri.or.th.
⁵ Synchrotron Light Research Institute, 111 University Avenue, Muang District, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand. narong@slri.or.th.
⁶ University of Bordeaux, Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO), UMR 5629, B8 Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. anirudh.sharma@enscbp.fr.
⁷ Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia. david.lewis@flinders.edu.au.
⁸ National Nanotechnology Center, 111 Thailand Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Klong 1, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. pisist@nanotec.or.th.

Abstract

The majority of high-performance perovskite and polymer solar cells consist of a TiO₂ electron transport layer (ETL) processed at a high temperature (>450 °C). Here, we demonstrate that low-temperature (80 °C) ETL thin film of TiO_x:Zn_1-xCd_xS can be used as an effective ETL and its band energy can be tuned by varying the TiO_x:Zn_1-xCd_xS ratio. At the optimal ratio of 50:50 (vol%), the MAPbI_xCl_1-x perovskite and PCBTBT:PC₇₀BM polymer solar cells achieved 9.79% and 4.95%, respectively. Morphological and optoelectronic analyses showed that tailoring band edges and homogeneous distribution of the local surface charges could improve the solar cells efficiency by more than 2%. We proposed a plausible mechanism to rationalize the variation in morphology and band energy of the ETL.

Keywords: TiOx; ZnCdS; electron transport layer; perovskite; polymer; scanning Kelvin probe microscopy; solar cells.

Abstract

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