Polyvinylpyrrolidone capped electrospun CH3NH3PbCl3 perovskite film as the electron transport layer in perovskite solar cell application.

[Display omitted] • PVP mitigates the effect of moisture on electrospun CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 perovskite film. • Lattice constants, crystallite and particle size is reduced in PVP capped film. • PVP improves morphology and reduces oxygen content of film compared to pure one. • CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 is used as ETL layer in a planner structured perovskite solar cell. • The cell exhibits PCE of 21.65% with FF = 72.21%, J sc = 32.44 mA/cm2, V oc = 0.924 V. Due to the inherent moisture instability problem of hybrid lead halide perovskites, polymer additives have to turn out to be a significant research area to enhance the moisture stability of these materials. It has been found that polymer engineering on the absorber layer of solar cells significantly improves chemical stability and overall device performance. This work reports the fabrication of pristine and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) polymer capped methylammonium lead chloride (CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3) perovskite film via the electrospinning method. A structural study using an X-ray diffractometer shows a sharp fall in average crystallite size from 66.05 nm to 39.69 nm when PVP is used in the synthesis procedure. A similar trend is also seen in the microscopic analysis, which depicts that the particle size has decreased for PVP added CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 perovskite film in comparison to CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 pristine film. The surface coverage and uniformity of the film is much more in the presence of PVP. It has been noted from energy dispersive X-ray analysis that the oxygen content is ∼16% more in the pure film, i.e. PVP hinders the effect of moisture in perovskite film, which is the prime objective of this work. Moreover, the optical properties have been analyzed using diffuse reflectance mode of UV–Vis-NIR spectroscope. Finally, the use of CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 as the electron transport layer has been demonstrated in Glass/FTO/CH 3 NH 3 PbCl 3 /CH 3 NH 3 SnI 3 /Spiro-OMeTAD/Au structured perovskite solar cell using the SCAPS-1D simulator. The above-mentioned cell exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.65%, fill factor (FF) of 72.21%, 32.44 mA/cm2 of short circuit current density (J sc), and 0.924 V open-circuit voltage (V oc). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]