Journal of Materials Science, Vol.54, No.21, 13594-13608, 2019
Unveiling the structures and electronic properties of CH3NH3PbI3 interfaces with TiO2, ZnO, and SnO2: a first-principles study
In this report, we use first-principles calculations to study the methylammonium lead iodide (MAPI) perovskite interfaces with titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), and tin oxide (SnO2). Our study suggests that the binding energy of MAPI on SnO2 is weak compared to TiO2 and ZnO. However, we show that the strong binding to TiO2 and ZnO deprotonates CH3NH3 molecules which influences the decomposition process. Among the three interfaces studied in this report, TiO2-based interfaces showed the highest charge transfer followed by the interfaces formed on SnO2. We report a possible interfacial recombination mechanism inside MAPI/TiO2 and MAPI/SnO2 devices. Our study concludes that MAPI/SnO2 interfaces provide advantages due to their improved stability for perovskite solar cells.