Large-area phosphorene for stable carbon-based perovskite solar cells

Carbon-based perovskite solar cells (c-PSCs) have attracted increasing attention due to their numerous advantages including ease of fabrication, the potential of assembling flexible devices, low manufacturing costs as well as large-scale production. However, c-PSCs suffer from the limited hole extraction and high charge carrier recombination due to the inadequate interface contact between the carbon electrode and perovskite film. Herein, we report the fabrication of planar c-PSCs with high efficiency and excellent stability by employing electrochemically produced large-area phosphorene flakes as a hole-transporting layer (HTL). Large-area phosphorene shows well-aligned band energy levels with the perovskite, and thus led to the efficient hole extraction and the reduced hysteresis behaviour. Consequently, while exhibiting excellent stability under various harsh testing conditions, the devices with phosphorene HTL delivered a power conversion efficiency of over 15% with an open-circuit voltage of 1.082 V, which is the highest reported value for c-PSCs without traditional hole transporting materials to date.