Perovskite solar cells with an MoS2 electron transport layer

There is an ongoing drive to search for low-temperature processed, stable and efficient electron transport layers (ETLs) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, we report, for the first time, the use of a MoS2 thin layer as the ETL for PSCs. MoS2 transparent thin films are directly synthesized on the glass/fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate by using microwave irradiation. The electrical characteristics of the MoS2 thin film are measured and compared with state-of-the-art efficient electron transporting materials like TiO2 and SnO2. The perovskite solar cells fabricated with the device structure, glass/FTO/MoS2/perovskite/po-spiro-OMeTAD/Au, exhibit a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.1%, which is close to the PCEs obtained from compact TiO2 and SnO2 ETL based PSCs. Good transparency in the visible region (400-900 nm), high electrical conductivity and better charge transfer properties as well as low-temperature synthesis make the MoS2 thin film useful for energy harvesting and other optoelectronic device applications.