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.