Copyright WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69469 Weinheim, Germany, 2018.

Supporting Information
for Adv. Energy Mater., DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201702722

Strategic Synthesis of Ultrasmall NiCo2O4 NPs as Hole

Transport Layer for Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells
Dan Ouyang, Junyan Xiao, Fei Ye, Zhanfeng Huang, Hong
Zhang, Lu Zhu, Jiaqi Cheng, and Wallace C. H. Choy*
Supporting Information

Strategic Synthesis of Ultra-small NiCo2O4 NPs as Hole Transport Layer for highly

Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

Dan Ouyang#, Junyan Xiao#, Fei Ye, Zhanfeng Huang, Hong Zhang, Lu Zhu, Jiaqi Cheng,

Wallace C. H. Choy*

Dan Ouyang, Dr. Junyan Xiao, Dr. Fei Ye, Zhanfeng Huang, Hong Zhang, Dr. Lu Zhu, Dr.
Jiaqi Cheng, Prof. Wallace C. H. Choy

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong,

Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong 999077, China
E-mail: chchoy@eee.hku.hk

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Figure S1. (a) XRD pattern of the solid sample after adding ammonia. (b) FT-IR spectra of
the solution after adding ammonia and the original Co(NO3)2 solution.

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Figure S2. (a) XRD patterns of the solid sample before and after calcination. (b) XRD
patterns of the whole process.

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Figure S3. XRD pattern of the solid sample after adding Ni(NO3)2.

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Figure S4. (a) XRD patterns of the solid samples synthesized under RT, 150 oC, and 180 oC,
respectively (removed NH4NO3 due to the strong peaks). TEM images of NiCo2O4 NPs by
calcination of the solid sample obtained from (b) 150 oC and (c) 180 oC, respectively.

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Figure S5. (a) FT-IR spectra of the solid sample before and after calcination. (b) TEM image
of NiCo2O4 NPs precipitated by NaOH.

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Figure S6. SEM image of the NiCo2O4 film on ITO glass.

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Figure S7. The contact angle of water on (a) NiCo2O4, and (b) PEDOT:PSS, respectively.

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Figure S8. AFM images of CH3NH3PbI3 (a) on NiCo2O4 and (b) on PEDOT:PSS,
respectively. Size distribution histogram of perovskites (c) on NiCo2O4, (d) on PEDOT:PSS,
respectively.

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Figure S9. (a) UPS spectrum of NiCo2O4 film.

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Figure S10. (a) IPCE spectrum of the NiCo2O4 based PVSC device. (b) PCE histogram of 20
NiCo2O4 based PVSC devices.

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Figure S11. (a) J-V characteristics of the best PEDOT:PSS based PVSCs. (b) Steady
photocurrent (red) and PCE (blue) under 1 Sun illumination of the best PEDOT:PSS based
PVSCs. (c) Dark J-V curves of the best NiCo2O4 and PEDOT:PSS based PVSCs, respectively.
(d) Nyquist plots of NiCo2O4 and PEDOT:PSS based PVSCs, respectively. (e) PL spectra and
(f) Normalized Transient PL spectra of perovskite films on ITO, NiCo2O4 and PEDOT:PSS,
respectively. Transient PLs are measured at the wavelength of 770 nm.

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