All-Inorganic CsPbBr₃ Perovskite Solar Cells with 10.45% Efficiency by Evaporation-Assisted Deposition and Setting Intermediate Energy Levels

Abstract

Nowadays, inorganic CsPbBr₃ perovskite is emerging as a promising candidate as a light-absorbing layer in photovoltaic devices due to its excellent photoelectric property and superior stability under humidity and thermal attacks in comparison with organic cation-based hybrid perovskites. However, the impure perovskite phase and severe interfacial charge recombination have limited the further improvement of device performance. In this work, a vapor-assisted solution technique was introduced to prepare a high-purity CsPbBr₃ film in a perovskite solar cell (PSC). To further reduce the electron-hole recombination and enhance charge extraction, we introduced the novel intermediate energy level of manganese sulfide (MnS) as a hole transport layer in CsPbBr₃ PSC. The as-optimized CsPbBr₃ PSC based on all-inorganic transport layers delivers a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.45% in comparison with 8.16% for the device free of an intermediate layer, which is one of the highest PCEs achieved among the CsPbBr₃-based PSCs to date. Moreover, the optimized device retained 80% PCE of its initial efficiency over 90 days under 80% relative humidity at 85 °C, indicating an excellent environmental tolerance to boost the commercial application of low-cost, efficient, and stable all-inorganic PSCs.