Polymer, Vol.97, 196-204, 2016
Enhance the stability and efficiency of perovskite solar cell via gel-type polyurethane
Solution process of perovskite solar cell is a very promising novel technology for low cost renewable energy and with fascinating properties in application of organic/inorganic hybrid materials. One of the most common cell structures is FTO/TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3-xClx/spiro-OMeTAD/Au. The main issues of this type of solar cell are the poor surface morphology and interface control of the perovskite CH3NH3PbI3-xClx film on TiO2. We demonstrate that the problems could be easily resolved by using a Gel-like polymer such as, polyurethane additive in perovskite precursor solution during the film fabrication of perovskite solar cell. Nearly 60% increase in power conversion efficiency at a value of 13.2% is achieved by adding 1 wt% of polyurethane in the perovskite layer using a 150 degrees C processed TiO2 nanoparticle layer. The morphology of this new perovskite was carefully studied by SEM, XRD, and AFM. The results reveal that the additive controls the size and aggregation (or segregation) between perovskite crystals and polyurethane linear soft segments which provides the formation of smooth film over TiO2 completely. Thus, the V-oc and J(sc) are greatly increased for a high efficiency solar cell. The small amount of additive is optimized at 1 wt% due to its insulating characteristics. This research provides a facile way to fabricate a high efficiency perovskite solar cell by the low temperature solution process (<150 degrees C), which has the advancement of conserving energy over the traditional high temperature sintering TiO2 compact layer device. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.