All-solid-state donor/acceptor planar-heterojunction (PHJ) hybrid solar cells are constructed and their excellent performance measured. The deposition of a thin C60 fullerene or fullerene-derivative (acceptor) layer in vacuum on a CH3 NH3 PbI3 perovskite (donor) layer creates a hybrid PHJ that displays the photovoltaic effect. Such heterojunctions are shown to be suitable for the development of newly structured, hybrid, efficient solar cells.

This study successfully demonstrates the application of inorganic p-type nickel oxide (NiOx ) as electrode interlayer for the fabrication of NiOx /CH3 NH3 PbI3 perovskite/PCBM PHJ hybrid solar cells with a respectable solar-to-electrical PCE of 7.8%. The better energy level alignment and improved wetting of the NiOx electrode interlayer significantly enhance the overall photovoltaic performance.

In this article, we present a new paradigm for organometallic hybrid perovskite solar cell using NiO inorganic metal oxide nanocrystalline as p-type electrode material and realized the first mesoscopic NiO/perovskite/[6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) heterojunction photovoltaic device. The photo-induced transient absorption spectroscopy results verified that the architecture is an effective p-type sensitized junction, which is the first inorganic p-type, metal oxide contact material for perovskite-based solar cell. Power conversion efficiency of 9.51% was achieved under AM 1.5 G illumination, which significantly surpassed the reported conventional p-type dye-sensitized solar cells. The replacement of the organic hole transport materials by a p-type metal oxide has the advantages to provide robust device architecture for further development of all-inorganic perovskite-based thin-film solar cells and tandem photovoltaics.

A low temperature (<100 °C), flexible solar cell based on an organic-inorganic hybrid CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite-fullerene planar heterojunction (PHJ) is successfully demonstrated. In this manuscript, we study the effects of energy level offset between a solar absorber (organic-inorganic hybrid CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite) and the selective contact materials on the photovoltaic behaviors of the planar organometallic perovskite-fullerene heterojunction solar cells. We find that the difference between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite and the Fermi level of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) dominates the voltage output of the device. ITO films on glass or on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) flexible substrate with different work functions are investigated to illustrate this phenomenon. The higher work function of the PET/ITO substrate decreases the energy loss of hole transfer from the HOMO of perovskite to ITO and minimizes the energy redundancy of the photovoltage output. The devices using the high work function ITO substrate as contact material show significant open-circuit voltage enhancement (920 mV), with the power conversion efficiency of 4.54%, and these types of extra-thin planar bilayer heterojunction solar cells have the potential advantages of low-cost and lightweight.