Acetylene Black as Counter Electrode on Monolithic Perovskite Solar Cell

Abstract

Perovskite solar cell (PSC) shows an outstanding performance growth in the last decade. The high-performing PSC currently is still on a laboratory scale and utilizes a noble metal for its counter electrode. The use of noble metal will later become an issue if PSC wants to enter commercialization. Carbon is a material that has a promising characteristic to replace noble metal. It is stable, low-cost, and abundant in nature. Furthermore, various deposition method of carbon layer makes PSC with a monolithic structure can be realized. Monolithic PSC has the advantage of being easy to scale up. This work presents the use of acetylene black, one type of carbon black, as a counter electrode in monolithic PSC. Acetylene black has a higher conductivity than ordinary carbon black sourced from the incomplete combustible petroleum product. A simple deposition technique was used in the making of acetylene black electrodes. The performance of champion devices shows an open-circuit voltage of 0.83 V, short-circuit current density of 14.59 mA/cm2, fill factor of 0.42, and efficiency of 4.99%. The result shows the prospect of acetylene black as a low-cost electrode for monolithic PSC.