Highly efficient, stable and hysteresis-less planar perovskite solar cell based on chemical bath treated Zn2SnO4 electron transport layer

The electron transport layer (ETL) is a key constituent in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). It should provide efficient and selective electron extraction, low resistivity and high stability. Here, zinc stannate (Zn2SnO4, ZSO) is employed as an ETL in planar PSCs. A surface treatment of a compact ZSO layer is introduced based on chemical bath deposition (CBD). CBD results in a dense and uniform surface morphology that promotes the formation of a perovskite film with better surface coverage and enlarged grains, which lead to reduced recombination losses. Such improvements effectively increase the charge extraction at ETL/perovskite interface and reduce trapassisted recombination, which results in a remarkable photovoltaic performance, low hysteresis index, and good reproducibility. The efficiency of PSCs based on CBD-modified ZSO ETL has been dramatically increased from 19.3% to 21.3% with a notable increase in open circuit voltage of 60 mV compared to bare ZSO-based devices. This value is among the highest for ZSO-based PSCs. More importantly, the CBD-treated PSCs exhibited good stability, retaining more than 90% of its initial efficiency over 1000 h under continuous illumination at maximum power point. These results demonstrate that CBD can significantly improve the performance and stability of ZSO-based planar PSCs, a crucial requirement for commercialization.