A multifunctional blade-coated ZnO seed layer for high-efficiency perovskite solar cells

ZnO as an electron transport layer (ETL) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has many benefits, including high mobility and low-temperature processability. ETL based on blade-coated ZnO nanorods is investigated for highly efficient hybrid PSCs for the first time. The ETL consisting of blade-coated ZnO nanorords demonstrates the best power conversion efficiency (PCEbest) of 16.56%, compared to ZnO nanorods grown on spin-coated ZnO films (PCEbest of 13.78%). We presume that development of perovskite devices based on blade-coated ZnO nanorods will yield an inexpensive, scalable and simple route towards improving the efficiency of perovskite solar cells for future commercialization.Graphical abstractAn ETL composed of blade-coated ZnO nanorods is studied for the first time, in detail, for hybrid perovskite solar cells leading to power conversion efficiency above 16.56%. [GRAPHICS]