Praseodymium doped nickel oxide as hole-transport layer for efficient planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Hybrid organic/inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs) have acquired significant consideration due to high power conversion efficiency (PCE). In PSCs, electron and hole extraction layers have a significant influence on their overall performance. In inverted p-i-n structure-based PSCs, NiOx has been frequently employed as a Hole Transport Layer (HTL) due to its simple processing, wide bandgap, high optical transmittance, excellent chemical stability, and low processing temperature for large-scale fabrication. However, NiOx suffers from low electrical conductivity. Doping of NiOx is an effective technique employed for enhancing electrical as well as optical properties. Herein, the Praseodymium doped NiOx (Pr-NiOx) was synthesized by sol-gel method, and films were fabricated to investigate the effect of Pr dopant on the optoelectronic properties and photovoltaic performance of PSCs. Results indicated that Pr doping significantly improved the hole mobility by about threefold and conductivity of NiOx films from 4.68 ×10-6 S cm-1 to 8.27 ×10-6 S cm-1. Moreover, it also enhanced the compactness and interfaces of NiOx HTL. PSCs based on 4% Pr-doped NiOx HTL- yielded PCE of 9.35% which is 32.43% more than the PSCs fabricated using undoped NiOx HTL. The enhanced PCE of PSC devices with Pr-doped NiOx could be attributed to efficient extraction of a hole from an active absorbing layer of perovskite thereby, lowering the probability of unsuitable charge carrier recombination. This work exhibits that Pr-doped NiOx thin film could be a promising alternative material for efficient and stable inverted PSCs.