Effect of seed layers on growth of SnO₂ nanorods and performance of perovskite solar cells

Abstract

SnO2 nanorods were grown on two kinds of seed layers formed from SnCl2·2H2O and SnO2 nanoparticles precursors, respectively, and used as one-dimensional electron transport materials to fabricate perovskite solar cell (PSCs). Effects of the seed layers on morphology, structure, optical properties of SnO2 nanorods and perovskite films, charge transfer at SnO2/perovskite interfaces as well as device performance were investigated by utilizing field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectroscopy(UV-vis), steady-state photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and volt-ampere characteristic curves (J-V). The results show that more dense seed layers can be formed from SnO2 nanoparticles and SnO2 nanorods films formed from SnO2 nanoparticles are more smooth and uniform relative to those grown from SnCl2·2H2O. The perovskite films deposited on the former show better crystallization quality and higher light absorption. The maximum efficiency of the device based on the SnO2 nanorods is 12.93%. This work demonstrates that SnO2 nanoparticles are a kind of excellent seed layer material for growing SnO2 nanorods films, and lays foundation for the preparation of high-performance perovskite solar cells based on one-dimensional electron transport materials.

Keywords

• perovskite solar cell
• sno₂nanorod
• electron transport layer
• sncl₂·2h₂o
• sno₂ colloidal nanoparticle