An investigation of inorganic ETL materials for a carbon-based HTL-free Perovskite solar cell

Sumbel Ijaz, Danial Khan, Yehia Massoud

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nanomaterials and nanotechnology have a pivotal role in reducing the footprint of target devices in many fields, in particular electronics and optics. The design of solar cells for meeting energy needs has also been taking advantage of such advancements in nanotechnology. One of the emerging types of solar cells is perovskite solar cells, which are not only cheap but efficient as well. There has been a lot of progress made in their design based on materials and structure. The continuous endeavors for further reduction of the device cost for large-scale deployment have led to a Hole Transparent Layer (HTL)-free structure with carbon electrodes instead of noble metals, as the work function of carbon is close to that of gold. The device layers, including the absorber and Electron Transport Layer (ETL), hold fundamental importance for an HTL-free design where TiO2 has been a very common material for ETL in perovskite solar cells, but it offers low conductivity and is susceptible to photo-catalysis on exposure to UV light. Therefore, we have investigated different materials, including WS2 (BG: 1.8 eV), WO3 (BG: 2.6 eV), ZnSe (BG: 2.82 eV), ZnO (BG: 3.3 eV) for being suitable alternatives to TiO2 (BG: 3.2 eV) as an ETL material. The device structure follows the configuration FTO/ETL/IDL/CH3NH3PbI3/carbon. The optimization of different design parameters, including layer thicknesses, doping concertation, carrier mobility, diffusion length, and operating temperature, has been carried out. The device with ETL made of ZnSe yielded the best results as Jsc of 24.77 mA/cm2, Voc of 1.25 V, FF of 86.29%, and a PCE of 26.76% were obtained.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPhotonics for Energy III
EditorsHaizheng Zhong, Rui Zhu, Samuel D. Stranks, Jianpu Wang
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Electronic)9781510667754
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
EventPhotonics for Energy III 2023 - Beijing, China
Duration: Oct 15 2023Oct 16 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume12763
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Conference

ConferencePhotonics for Energy III 2023
Country/TerritoryChina
CityBeijing
Period10/15/2310/16/23

Keywords

  • ETL
  • HTL
  • Perovskite solar cell
  • power conversion efficiency
  • SCAPs-1D
  • ZnSe

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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