biostudies-literatureUnknown10(71)Kim SKKorea Electric Power CorporationWe compared nickel oxide (NiO _<i>x</i> ) deposited by thermal evaporation and that deposited by the spin-coating process, for use in the hole transport layers of inverted planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Spin-coating deposition for NiO _<i>x</i> HTL has been widely used, owing to its simplicity, low cost, and high efficiency. However, the spin-coating process has a technical limit to depositing a large-area uniformly. In contrast, thermal evaporation fabrication has a low price and is able to produce uniform and reproducible thin film. Hence, the chemical states, energy band alignment, surface morphologies, and microstructures of NiO _<i>x</i> deposited by spin coating and thermal evaporation were analyzed. The PSC with NiO _<i>x</i> HTL deposited by thermal evaporation showed a higher power conversion efficiency of 16.64% with open circuit voltage 1.07 V, short circuit current density of 20.68 mA cm^-2, and a fill factor of 75.51% compared to that of PSC with spin-coated NiO _<i>x</i> . We confirmed that thermal evaporation can deposit NiO _<i>x</i> to give a better performance as a HTL with higher reproducibility than spin-coating.RSC advances43847-43852https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9058328biostudies-literatureComparison of NiO _<i>x</i> thin film deposited by spin-coating or thermal evaporation for application as a hole transport layer of perovskite solar cells.PMC9058328Kim DHChoi DHKim HKKim SCSeok HJKim SKNam SJfalseComparison of NiO _<i>x</i> thin film deposited by spin-coating or thermal evaporation for application as a hole transport layer of perovskite solar cells.We compared nickel oxide (NiO _<i>x</i> ) deposited by thermal evaporation and that deposited by the spin-coating process, for use in the hole transport layers of inverted planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Spin-coating deposition for NiO _<i>x</i> HTL has been widely used, owing to its simplicity, low cost, and high efficiency. However, the spin-coating process has a technical limit to depositing a large-area uniformly. In contrast, thermal evaporation fabrication has a low price and is able to produce uniform and reproducible thin film. Hence, the chemical states, energy band alignment, surface morphologies, and microstructures of NiO _<i>x</i> deposited by spin coating and thermal evaporation were analyzed. The PSC with NiO _<i>x</i> HTL deposited by thermal evaporation showed a higher power conversion efficiency of 16.64% with open circuit voltage 1.07 V, short circuit current density of 20.68 mA cm^-2, and a fill factor of 75.51% compared to that of PSC with spin-coated NiO _<i>x</i> . We confirmed that thermal evaporation can deposit NiO _<i>x</i> to give a better performance as a HTL with higher reproducibility than spin-coating.2020-01-01T00:00:00Z2020 Nov2025-05-18T12:06:42.617Z2025-04-06T22:55:28.497ZS-EPMC90583283551968910.1039/d0ra08776a