All-inorganic, hole-transporting-layer-free, carbon-based CsPbIBr2 planar perovskite solar cells by a two-step temperature-control annealing process

Abstract In this paper, all-inorganic CsPbIBr2 thin films were annealed by a two-step temperature-control process. All-inorganic, hole-transporting-layer-free, carbon-based planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with these CsPbIBr2 thin films (FTO/c-TiO2/CsPbIBr2/C) were fabricated. The effect of different first-step annealing temperatures during the two-step temperature-control process (50 °C/280 °C, 80 °C/280 °C, 100 °C/280 °C, 150 °C/280 °C, 180 °C/280 °C) on the photovoltaic conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs was investigated for the first time. When the first-step annealing temperature was 150 °C and the second-step annealing temperature was 280 °C, the highest efficiency of 8.31% was obtained. Without encapsulation, the solar cell could retain 97% of the initial PCE, when it was stored at 80 °C and zero humidity for 8 days. For comparison, solar cells with CsPbIBr2 films annealed by a one-step temperature-control process were fabricated. The highest PCE was 4.98%. From this, we could see that there is an increase of 66.9% in PCE, through using a two-step temperature-control annealing process. And also, in order to investigate why the PSCs by a two-step temperature-control annealing process has a higher PCE, all kinds of measurements were done for the first time. According to the results of the measurements, the perovskite film annealed by a two-step temperature-control process has a bigger crystal size, fewer grain boundaries, stronger PL and UV–vis absorption intensities, longer lifetime of minority carriers, less energy loss for hole transporting.