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Similarly, the use of expensive noble metal electrode precursors such as gold (Au), silver (Ag) and aluminium (Al) with energy-intensive techniques for the deposition of back contact further hinders the onsite commercial production 14, 15, 16.Īs to overcome such practical issues, replacing the unstable HTMs and the expensive back contacts with a low-cost alternative material would result in bringing down the overall cost of the PSC devices and also improve their performance 17, 18.
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Nevertheless, the use of expensive and unstable conducting polymers based hole transporting materials (HTMs) such as (2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-MeOTAD) and poly (PTAA) which costs around ~$ 500 and ~$ 3,000 per gram respectively and also their instability issues towards thermal and moisture strictly restricts their usage in practical applications 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. In general, a typical PSC is composed of an electron transport layer (ETL), an active absorbing layer, a HTL, and a counter electrode.
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Outstanding photovoltaic properties such as high charge carrier mobility, long electron-hole diffusion length, high absorption coefficient with tuneable bandgap property, low-exciton binding energy, and easy solution preparation techniques make it to compete with traditional commercial silicon solar cells 6, 7. Lower cost, shorter payback time and an unprecedented rise in power conversion efficiency (PCE) escalating from 3.8% in 2009 to 24.2% (2019) have turned the attention of researchers and industrial community towards perovskite solar cells (PSCs) within a decade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We believe that this present work on invasive plant extracted carbon playing a dual role, together as an interfacial layer may pave the way towards a reliable perovskite photovoltaic device at low-cost. Surprisingly, the introduced EC-GC10 encapsulated perovskite interfacial layer at the perovskite/HTM interface helps in overcoming the moisture degradation of the hygroscopic perovskite layer in which the same champion device-1 c evinced better air stability retaining its efficiency ~94.40% for 1000 hours. Hence, the fabricated champion device-1 c: Glass/FTO/c-TiO 2/mp-TiO 2/CH 3NH 3PbI 3−xCl 3NH 3PbI 3−x Cl x/EC-GC10) exhibited a PCE of 8.52%. The changes in annealing temperature (~450 ☌, ~850 ☌ and ~1000 ☌) while extracting the EC-GC, made a significant impact on the degree of graphitization - a remarkable criterion in determining the device performance. Herein, we have demonstrated the sustainable fabrication of efficient and air-stable PSCs composed of an invasive plant ( Eichhornia crassipes) extracted porous graphitic carbon (EC-GC) which plays a dual role as HTM/counter electrode. Yet the use of such expensive and unstable HTMs, together with hygroscopic perovskite structure remains a concern – an arguable aspect for the prospect of onsite photovoltaic (PV) application. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) composed of organic polymer-based hole-transporting materials (HTMs) are considered to be an important strategy in improving the device performance, to compete with conventional solar cells.