Ambient Stable and Efficient Monolithic Tandem Perovskite/PbS Quantum Dots Solar Cells via Surface Passivation and Light Management Strategies

Abstract

Here, highly efficient and stable monolithic (2-terminal (2T)) perovskite/PbS quantum dots (QDs) tandem solar cells are reported, where the perovskite solar cell (PSC) acts as the front cell and the PbS QDs device with a narrow bandgap acts as the back cell. Specifically, ZnO nanowires (NWs) passivated by SnO2 are employed as an electron transporting layer for PSC front cell, leading to a single cell PSC with maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 22.15%, which is the most efficient NWs-based PSCs in the literature. By surface passivation of PbS QDs by CdCl2, QD devices with an improved open-circuit voltage and a PCE of 8.46% (bandgap of QDs: 0.92 eV) are achieved. After proper optimization, 2T and 4T tandem devices with stabilized PCEs of 17.1% and 21.1% are achieved, respectively, where the 2T tandem device shows the highest efficiency reported in the literature for this design. Interestingly, the 2T tandem cell shows excellent operational stability over 500 h under continuous illumination with only 6% PCE loss. More importantly, this device without any packaging depicts impressive ambient stability (almost no change) after 70 days in an environment with controlled 65% relative humidity, thanks to the superior air stability of the PbS QDs.