ZnO nanorods/AZO photoanode for perovskite solar cells fabricated in ambient air

ZnO nanorods are a good candidate for replacing standard photoanodes, such as TiO2, in perovskite solar cells and in principle superseding the high performances already obtained. This is possible because ZnO nanorods have a fast electron transport rate due to their large surface area. An array of ZnO nanorods is grown by chemical bath deposition starting from Al-doped ZnO (AZO) used both as a seed layer and as an efficient transparent anode in the visible spectral range. In particular, in this work we fabricate methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) perovskite solar cells using glass/AZO/ZnO nanorods/perovskite/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au as the architecture. The growth of ZnO nanorods has been optimized by varying the precursor concentrations, growth time and solution temperature. All the fabrication process and photovoltaic characterizations have been carried out in ambient air and the devices have not been encapsulated. Power conversion efficiency as high as 7.0% has been obtained with a good stability over 20 d. This is the highest reported value to the best of our knowledge and it is a promising result for the development of perovskite solar cells based on ZnO nanorods and AZO. © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd.