Efficient organometal trihalide perovskite planar-heterojunction solar cells on flexible polymer substrates

Organometal trihalide perovskite solar cells offer the promise of a low-cost easily manufacturable solar technology, compatible with large-scale low-temperature solution processing. Within 1 year of development, solar-to-electric power-conversion efficiencies have risen to over 15%, and further imminent improvements are expected. Here we show that this technology can be successfully made compatible with electron acceptor and donor materials generally used in organic photovoltaics. We demonstrate that a single thin film of the low-temperature solution-processed organometal trihalide perovskite absorber CH3NH3PbI3-xClx, sandwiched between organic contacts can exhibit devices with power-conversion efficiency of up to 10% on glass substrates and over 6% on flexible polymer substrates. This work represents an important step forward, as it removes most barriers to adoption of the perovskite technology by the organic photovoltaic community, and can thus utilize the extensive existing knowledge of hybrid interfaces for further device improvements and flexible processing platforms.