Efficient Yttrium(III) Chloride-Treated TiO2 Electron Transfer Layers for Performance-Improved and Hysteresis-Less Perovskite Solar Cells

Graphical Delete hysteresis? Efficient and hysteresis-less perovskite solar cells are prepared by using YCl 3 -treated TiO 2 electron transfer layers. The YCl 3 treatment increases the film conductivity and raises the lower boundary of the TiO 2 conduction band. The average device efficiency reaches approximately 18.82 %, owing to better energy level alignment and favorable charge transfer. Hybrid organic–inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells have attracted widespread attention, owing to their high performance, and have undergone rapid development. In perovskite solar cells, the charge transfer layer plays an important role for separating and transferring photogenerated carriers. In this work, an efficient YCl 3 -treated TiO 2 electron transfer layer (ETL) is used to fabricate perovskite solar cells with enhanced photovoltaic performance and less hysteresis. The YCl 3 -treated TiO 2 layers bring about an upward shift of the conduction band minimum ( E CBM ), which results in a better energy level alignment for photogenerated electron transfer and extraction from the perovskite into the TiO 2 layer. After optimization, perovskite solar cells based on the YCl 3 -treated TiO 2 layers achieve a maximum power conversion efficiency of about 19.99 % (19.29 % at forward scan) and a steady-state power output of about 19.6 %. Steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements and impedance spectroscopy are carried out to investigate the charge transfer and recombination dynamics between the perovskite and the TiO 2 electron transfer layer interface. The improved perovskite/TiO 2 ETL interface with YCl 3 treatment is found to separate and extract photogenerated charge rapidly and suppress recombination effectively, which leads to the improved performance.