Incorporation of Vanadium(V) Oxide in Hybrid Hole Transport Layer Enables Long-term Operational Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that charge transport interlayers with low gas permeability can increase the operational lifetime of perovskite solar cells serving as a barrier for migration of volatile decomposition products from the photoactive layer. Herein we present a hybrid hole transport layer (HTL) comprised of p-type polytriarylamine (PTAA) polymer and vanadium(V) oxide (VO_<i>x</i>). Devices with PTAA/VO_<i>x</i> top HTL reach up to 20% efficiency and demonstrate negligible degradation after 4500 h of light soaking, whereas reference cells using PTAA/MoO_<i>x</i> as HTL lose ∼50% of their initial efficiency under the same aging conditions. It was shown that the main origin of the enhanced device stability lies in the higher tolerance of VO_<i>x</i> toward MAPbI₃ compared to the MoO_<i>x</i> interlayer, which tends to facilitate perovskite decomposition. Our results demonstrate that the application of PTAA/VO_<i>x</i> hybrid HTL enables long-term operational stability of perovskite solar cells, thus bringing them closer to commercial applications.