Efficiency enhancement of regular-type perovskite solar cells based on Al-doped ZnO nanorods as electron transporting layers

In this paper, we first incorporated Al(NO₃)₃·9H₂O as the Al source into ZnO nanorods (NRs) lattice via the hydrothermal method to modify nature properties of ZnO NRs for the fabrication of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of Al-doped ZnO NRs exhibits higher 2θ values and stronger intensity of (002) plane. Larger optical band gap and higher electrical conductivity of Al-doped ZnO NRs are also observed relative to non-doped ZnO ones. The steady-state photoluminescence shows effective charge extraction and collection at the interface between Al-doped ZnO NRs and perovskite layer. The optimized PSC based on Al-doped ZnO NRs showed an open-circuit voltage of 0.84 V, a short-circuit current density of 21.93 mA/cm², a fill factor of 57%, and a power conversion efficiency of 10.45% that was 23% higher than the non-doped ZnO ones.