Kerttu Aitola

Mixed ion perovskite solar cells (PSC) are manufactured with a metal‐free hole contact based on press‐transferred single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) film infiltrated with 2,2,7,‐7‐tetrakis(N,N‐di‐p‐methoxyphenylamine)‐9,90‐spirobifluorene (Spiro‐OMeTAD). By means of maximum power point tracking, their stabilities are compared with those of standard PSCs employing spin‐coated Spiro‐OMeTAD and a thermally evaporated Au back contact, under full 1 sun illumination, at 60 °C, and in a N₂ atmosphere. During the 140 h experiment, the solar cells with the Au electrode experience a dramatic, irreversible efficiency loss, rendering them effectively nonoperational, whereas the SWCNT‐contacted devices show only a small linear efficiency loss with an extrapolated lifetime of 580 h.

We demonstrate a high efficiency perovskite solar cell with a hybrid hole-transporting material-counter electrode based on a thin single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) film and a drop-cast 2,2,7,-7-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) hole-transporting material (HTM). The average efficiency of the solar cells was 13.6%, with the record cell yielding 15.5% efficiency. The efficiency of the reference solar cells with spin-coated Spiro-OMeTAD hole-transporting materials (HTMs) and an evaporated gold counter electrode was 17.7% (record 18.8%), that of the cells with only a SWCNT counter electrode (CE) without additional HTM was 9.1% (record 11%) and that of the cells with gold deposited directly on the perovskite layer was 5% (record 6.3%). Our results show that it is possible to manufacture high efficiency perovskite solar cells with thin film (thickness less than 1 μm) completely carbon-based HTM-CEs using industrially upscalable manufacturing methods, such as press-transferred CEs and drop-cast HTMs.

Conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) doped with iron(III) tris-p-toluenesulfonate (PEDOT:Tos) having metallic conductivity was coated onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass and plain glass substrates and used as a counter electrode (CE) in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) with a [Co(bpy)₃]^3+/2+ complex redox shuttle. DSCs with PEDOT:Tos/glass CE yielded power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 6.3%, similar to that of DSCs with platinized FTO glass CE (6.1%). The PEDOT:Tos-based counter electrodes had 5 to 10 times lower charge-transfer resistance than the Pt/FTO CE in DSCs, as analyzed by impedance spectroscopy. More detailed studies in symmetrical CE-CE cells showed that the PEDOT:Tos layers are nanoporous. Not all internal area can be used catalytically under solar cell conditions and effective charge-transfer resistance was similar to that of Pt/FTO.