The Influence of the Work Function of Hybrid Carbon Electrodes on Printable Mesoscopic Perovskite Solar Cells

In printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells (PSCs), carbon electrodes play a significant role in charge extraction and transport, influencing the overall device performance. The work function and electrical conductivity of the carbon electrodes mainly affect the open-circuit voltage (<i>V</i>_OC) and series resistance (<i>R</i>_s) of the device. In this paper, we propose a hybrid carbon electrode based on a high-temperature mesoporous carbon (m-C) layer and a low-temperature highly conductive carbon (c-C) layer. The m-C layer has a high work function and large surface area and is mainly responsible for charge extraction. The c-C layer has a high conductivity and is responsible for charge transport. The work function of the m-C layer was tuned by adding different amounts of NiO, and at the same time, the conductivities of the hybrid carbon electrodes were maintained by the c-C layer. It was supposed that the increase of the work function of the carbon electrode can enhance the <i>V</i>_OC of printable mesoscopic PSCs. Here, we found the <i>V</i>_OC of the device based on hybrid carbon electrodes can be enhanced remarkably when the insulating layer has a relatively small thickness (500–1000 nm). An optimal improvement in <i>V</i>_OC of up to 90 mV could be achieved when the work function of the m-C was increased from 4.94 to 5.04 eV. When the thickness of the insulating layer was increased to ∼3000 nm, the variation of <i>V</i>_OC as the work function of m-C increased became less distinct