Fulleropyrrolidinium Iodide As an Efficient Electron Transport Layer for Air-Stable Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells have attracted great attention in recent years. But there are still a lot of unresolved issues related to the perovskite solar cells such as the phenomenon of anomalous hysteresis characteristics and long-term stability of the devices. Here, we developed a simple three-layered efficient perovskite device by replacing the commonly employed PCBM electrical transport layer with an ultrathin fulleropyrrolidinium iodide (C₆₀-bis) in an inverted p-i-n architecture. The devices with an ultrathin C₆₀-bis electronic transport layer yield an average power conversion efficiency of 13.5% and a maximum efficiency of 15.15%. Steady-state photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) measurements show that the high performance is attributed to the efficient blocking of holes and high extraction efficiency of electrons by C₆₀-bis, due to a favorable energy level alignment between the CH₃NH₃PbI₃ and the Ag electrodes. The hysteresis effect and stability of our perovskite solar cells with C₆₀-bis become better under indoor humidity conditions.