PHOtoactivated Metal Oxide TRansport layers for Indoor Perovskite Photovoltaics

Harnessing indoor lighting available in buildings has the potential to power the next generation of Internet of Things, creating a more environmentally and economically sustainable ecosystem to accelerate future innovation.

Indoor photovoltaics enable this by utilising artificial light sources such as white light-emitting diode and fluorescent lamps to negate the limitations imposed by battery-powered systems.

Among the emerging photovoltaic technologies, indoor perovskite solar cells display immense promise and require further study to reach their true potential.

The electron transport layer, an integral part of the perovskite solar cell architecture, is of particular interest as its optimisation can lead to overall enhancement of device performance in indoor conditions.

Popular metal oxide-based electron transport layers, that offer solution processability, tunable electronic properties, high carrier mobility, and favourable energy level match with the perovskite, continue to suffer from high temperature processing and interfacial defects.

Lowering the processing temperature to increase compatibility with flexible devices, diversifying the metal oxide family to develop a wider choice of materials, and formation of metal oxide composites to augment charge transfer and stability, are some measures that can overcome the challenges of the present transport layers and further enhance their properties.

This study attempts to achieve this by innovatively combining low temperature photo-annealing and graphene incorporation to produce high quality films of conventional and novel metal oxides, that can be employed in indoor perovskite solar cells to improve overall device efficiency and stability.

This proposal is a focussed but significant attempt to fill the gap arising from a lack of concentrated study on electron transport materials, more specifically inorganic metal oxides in the domain of indoor perovskite solar cells.