Inorganic p-type semiconductors and carbon materials based hole transport materials for perovskite solar cells

Organic-inorganic lead halide based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have presented a promising prospective in photovoltaic field with current record power conversion efficiency of 22.7%, which is comparable to commercial crystalline silicon cells and even higher than traditional thin film solar cells of CIGS. However, the pressure to enhance device stability under operational condition has driven researches towards development of stable hole transport materials (HTMs) for PSCs. Compared to traditional expensive organic HTMs such as spiro-OMeTAD, there is no doubt that inorganic p-type semiconductors and carbon materials are attractive alternatives that not only possess better stability but also are much cheaper. This review summarized the most recent progress of inorganic hole-transporting materials and carbon materials that have been developed for PSCs. The most recent advancement of device performance using these HTMs was demonstrated. In addition, the research of using various types of carbon materials as additives in HTMs to enhance device performance and stability or as electrical contact in HTM-free PSC was also demonstrated. The effectiveness of each type of materials on mitigating ion migration and degradation of PSC induced by humidity, illumination light intensity and high temperature is discussed. This timely review sheds light on the approaches to tackle the stability issue of PSCs to push the technology towards commercialization through material engineering of HTM.