| Abstract: | The fabrication of high-quality electron-selective layers at low temperature is a prerequisite to realizing efficient flexible and tandem perovskite solar cells(PSCs). A colloidal-quantum-dot ink that contains TiO_2 nanocrystals enables the deposition of a flat film with matched energy level for PSCs; however, the selection of ligands on the TiO_2 surface is still unexplored. Here, we systematically studied the effect of the titanium diisopropoxide bis(acetylacetonate)(TiAc_2)ligand on the performance of PSCs with a planar n-i-p architecture. We prepared TiO_2 nanocrystals from TiCl4 and ethyl alcohol with Cl~- ligands attached on its surface and we found that a tiny amount of TiAc_2 treatment of as-prepared TiO_2 nanocrystals in a mixed solution of chloroform and methyl alcohol can enhance PSC power conversion efficiency(PCE)from 14.7% to 18.3%. To investigate the effect of TiAc_2 ligand on PSCs, TiO_2 samples with different TiAc_2 content were prepared by adding TiAc_2 into the as-obtained TiO_2 nanocrystal solution. We use x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to identify the content of Cl so as to reveal that Cl ligands can be substituted by TiAc_2. We speculate that the improvement in PCE originates from amorphous TiO_2 formation on the TiO_2 nanocrystal surface, whereby a single-molecule layer of amorphous TiO_2 facilitates charge transfer between the perovskite film and the TiO_2 electronic transport layer, but excessive TiAc_2 lowers the PSC performance dramatically. We further prove our hypothesis by x-ray diffraction measurements. We believe the PCE of PSCs can be further improved by carefully choosing the type and changing the content of surface ligands on TiO_2 nanocrystal. |
