Skip to main content
Log in

Materials and structures for the electron transport layer of efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

  • Mini Reviews
  • Published:
Science China Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The electron transport layer plays a vital function in extracting and transporting photogenerated electrons, modifying the interface, aligning the interfacial energy level and minimizing the charge recombination in perovskite solar cells. This review summarizes the recent research progress on electron transport materials of metal oxides, organic molecules and multilayers. The doped metal oxides as electron transport materials in regular perovskite solar cells show improved device performance relative to their non-doped counterpart due to enhanced electron mobility and energy level alignment. The non-fullerene organic electron transport materials with better electron mobility and tunable energy level alignment need to be further designed and developed despite their advantages of mechanical flexibility and wide range tunability. The multilayer electron transport materials are suggested to be an important direction of research for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells because of their favorable synergistic interaction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kojima A, Teshima K, Shirai Y, Miyasaka T. J Am Chem Soc, 2009, 131: 6050–6051

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Kim HS, Lee CR, Im JH, Lee KB, Moehl T, Marchioro A, Moon SJ, Humphry-Baker R, Yum JH, Moser JE, Grätzel M, Park NG. Sci Rep, 2012, 2: 591

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Lee MM, Teuscher J, Miyasaka T, Murakami TN, Snaith HJ. Science, 2012, 338: 643–647

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Best research: cell efficiency. https://doi.org/www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html, 2019

  5. Zhang W, Wang YC, Li X, Song C, Wan L, Usman K, Fang J. Adv Sci, 2018, 5: 1800159

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang Y, Yue Y, Yang X, Han L. Adv Energy Mater, 2018, 8: 1800249

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lee JW, Lee TY, Yoo PJ, Grätzel M, Mhaisalkar S, Park NG. J Mater Chem A, 2014, 2: 9251–9259

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Mali SS, Shim CS, Park HK, Heo J, Patil PS, Hong CK. Chem Mater, 2015, 27: 1541–1551

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Li JF, Zhang ZL, Gao HP, Zhang Y, Mao YL. J Mater Chem A, 2015, 3: 19476–19482

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wu WQ, Huang F, Chen D, Cheng YB, Caruso RA. Adv Funct Mater, 2015, 25: 3264–3272

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Lee JW, Lee SH, Ko HS, Kwon J, Park JH, Kang SM, Ahn N, Choi M, Kim JK, Park NG. J Mater Chem A, 2015, 3: 9179–9186

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang J, Hultqvist A, Zhang T, Jiang L, Ruan C, Yang L, Cheng Y, Edoff M, Johansson EMJ. ChemSusChem, 2017, 10: 3810–3817

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Liu D, Kelly TL. Nat Photon, 2013, 8: 133–138

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Song J, Zheng E, Bian J, Wang XF, Tian W, Sanehira Y, Miyasaka T. J Mater Chem A, 2015, 3: 10837–10844

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Ke W, Fang G, Liu Q, Xiong L, Qin P, Tao H, Wang J, Lei H, Li B, Wan J, Yang G, Yan Y. J Am Chem Soc, 2015, 137: 6730–6733

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Jiang Q, Zhang L, Wang H, Yang X, Meng J, Liu H, Yin Z, Wu J, Zhang X, You J. Nat Energy, 2016, 2: 16177

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Han GS, Chung HS, Kim DH, Kim BJ, Lee JW, Park NG, Cho IS, Lee JK, Lee S, Jung HS. Nanoscale, 2015, 7: 15284–15290

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Gheno A, Thu Pham TT, Di Bin C, Bouclé J, Ratier B, Vedraine S. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells, 2017, 161: 347–354

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Wang K, Shi Y, Li B, Zhao L, Wang W, Wang X, Bai X, Wang S, Hao C, Ma T. Adv Mater, 2016, 28: 1891–1897

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Qin P, Domanski AL, Chandiran AK, Berger R, Butt HJ, Dar MI, Moehl T, Tetreault N, Gao P, Ahmad S, Nazeeruddin MK, Grätzel M. Nanoscale, 2014, 6: 1508–1514

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Leijtens T, Eperon GE, Pathak S, Abate A, Lee MM, Snaith HJ. Nat Commun, 2013, 4: 2885

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Pathak SK, Abate A, Ruckdeschel P, Roose B, Gödel KC, Vaynzof Y, Santhala A, Watanabe SI, Hollman DJ, Noel N, Sepe A, Wiesner U, Friend R, Snaith HJ, Steiner U. Adv Funct Mater, 2014, 24: 6046–6055

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Wang J, Qin M, Tao H, Ke W, Chen Z, Wan J, Qin P, Xiong L, Lei H, Yu H, Fang G. Appl Phys Lett, 2015, 106: 121104

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Zhang X, Bao Z, Tao X, Sun H, Chen W, Zhou X. RSC Adv, 2014, 4: 64001–64005

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Mahmood K, Swain BS, Amassian A. Adv Energy Mater, 2015, 5: 1500568

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Jeng JY, Chiang YF, Lee MH, Peng SR, Guo TF, Chen P, Wen TC. Adv Mater, 2013, 25: 3727–3732

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Liang PW, Chueh CC, Williams ST, Jen AKY. Adv Energy Mater, 2015, 5: 1402321

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Xing Y, Sun C, Yip HL, Bazan GC, Huang F, Cao Y. Nano Energy, 2016, 26: 7–15

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Chen R, Wang W, Bu TL, Ku ZL, Zhong J, Peng Y, Xiao S, You W, Huang F, Cheng Y, Fu Z. Acta Phys-Chim Sin, 2019, 35: 401–407

    Google Scholar 

  30. Bai Y, Dong Q, Shao Y, Deng Y, Wang Q, Shen L, Wang D, Wei W, Huang J. Nat Commun, 2016, 7: 12806

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Akbulatov AF, Frolova LA, Griffin MP, Gearba IR, Dolocan A, Vanden Bout DA, Tsarev S, Katz EA, Shestakov AF, Stevenson KJ, Troshin PA. Adv Energy Mater, 2017, 7: 1700476

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Jiang K, Wu F, Yu H, Yao Y, Zhang G, Zhu L, Yan H. J Mater Chem A, 2018, 6: 16868–16873

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Cheng M, Li Y, Liu P, Zhang F, Hajian A, Wang H, Li J, Wang L, Kloo L, Yang X, Sun L. Sol RRL, 2017, 1: 1700046

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Jung SK, Heo JH, Lee DW, Lee SC, Lee SH, Yoon W, Yun H, Im SH, Kim JH, Kwon OP. Adv Funct Mater, 2018, 28: 1800346

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Zhao D, Zhu Z, Kuo MY, Chueh CC, Jen AKY. Angew Chem Int Ed, 2016, 55: 8999–9003

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Wang N, Zhao K, Ding T, Liu W, Ahmed AS, Wang Z, Tian M, Sun XW, Zhang Q. Adv Energy Mater, 2017, 7: 1700522

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Wu F, Gao W, Yu H, Zhu L, Li L, Yang C. J Mater Chem A, 2018, 6: 4443–4448

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Wang R, Qiao J, He B, Tang X, Wu F, Zhu L. J Mater Chem C, 2018, 6: 8429–8434

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Wan L, Li X, Song C, He Y, Zhang W. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells, 2019, 191: 437–443

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Jiang Y, Li J, Xiong S, Jiang F, Liu T, Qin F, Hu L, Zhou Y. J Mater Chem A, 2017, 5: 17632–17639

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Yu H, Zhang Q, Han C, Zhu X, Sun X, Yang Q, Yang H, Deng L, Zhao F, Wang K, Hu B. Org Electron, 2018, 63: 137–142

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Jiang K, Wu F, Zhu L, Yan H. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2018, 10: 36549–36555

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Kim HI, Kim MJ, Choi K, Lim C, Kim YH, Kwon SK, Park T. Adv Energy Mater, 2018, 8: 1702872

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Tian L, Hu Z, Liu X, Liu Z, Guo P, Xu B, Xue Q, Yip HL, Huang F, Cao Y. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2019, 11: 5289–5297

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Zhou H, Chen Q, Li G, Luo S, Song T, Duan HS, Hong Z, You J, Liu Y, Yang Y. Science, 2014, 345: 542–546

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Song S, Hill R, Choi K, Wojciechowski K, Barlow S, Leisen J, Snaith HJ, Marder SR, Park T. Nano Energy, 2018, 49: 324–332

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Noh YW, Lee JH, Jin IS, Park SH, Jung JW. Electrochim Acta, 2019, 294: 337–344

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Tavakoli MM, Saliba M, Yadav P, Holzhey P, Hagfeldt A, Zakeeruddin SM, Grätzel M. Adv Energy Mater, 2019, 9: 1802646

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Wu SH, Lin MY, Chang SH, Tu WC, Chu CW, Chang YC. J Phys Chem C, 2018, 122: 236–244

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Rahman NU, Khan WU, Li W, Khan S, Khan J, Zheng S, Su T, Zhao J, Aldred MP, Chi Z. J Mater Chem A, 2019, 7: 322–329

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Zheng S, Li W, Su T, Xie F, Chen J, Yang Z, Zhang Y, Liu S, Aldred MP, Wong KY, Xu J, Chi Z. Sol RRL, 2018, 2: 1700245

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Hou Q, Ren J, Chen H, Yang P, Shao Q, Zhao M, Zhao X, He H, Wang N, Luo Q, Guo Z. ChemElectroChem, 2018, 5: 726–731

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  53. Zhang J, Tan CH, Du T, Morbidoni M, Lin CT, Xu S, Durrant JR, McLachlan MA. Sci Bull, 2018, 63: 343–348

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Xu J, Fang M, Chen J, Zhang B, Yao J, Dai S. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2018, 10: 20578–20590

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Shenzhen Peacock Plan Program (KQTD2016053015544057), the Nanshan Pilot Plan (LHTD20170001), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51773230).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shihe Yang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zheng, S., Wang, G., Liu, T. et al. Materials and structures for the electron transport layer of efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. Sci. China Chem. 62, 800–809 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-019-9469-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-019-9469-1

Keywords

Navigation