Effect of phthalocyanine-based charge transport layers on unleaded KSnI₃ perovskite solar cell

Abstract

The implementation and commercialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are hindered due to the presence of toxic lead. Metal phthalocyanines (MPc) have been studied extensively as charge transport layers (CTLs) in PSCs due to their desirable properties such as thermal and chemical robustness, and low production cost. In the present work, a theoretical study of the effect of phthalocyanine-based CTLs on a non-leaded KSnI3-based PSC is carried out using SCAPS software. The defect concentration of the layers and the interfaces, doping density and thickness of the layers, shunt, and series resistance of the device is optimized. Carbon is suggested as an affordable alternative to the state of art back contact material, gold. The stability of this device with temperature is also established. The optimized solar cell showed an excellent fill factor (FF) of 86.51% with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11.91% and an excellent quantum efficiency (QE) ranging from 99.42%(400nm) to 72.02%(660nm) in the visible region. The present study highlights the enhanced performance parameters of leadless KSnI3-based PSC with phthalocyanine-based CTLs as compared to the state-of-art CTLs, TiO2 and Spiro-OMeTAD reported in previous literature with a PCE and FF of 9.776% and 36.139% respectively.

Inorganic charge transport layer for efficient Pb-free KSnI3 based perovskite solar cells: a theoretical study

“…A drop in PCE is observed as the interfacial defect density increases from 10°cm −3 to 10 16 cm −3 . This can be attributed to increased recombination, reduced charge transport, and the fact that the high defect densities can degrade the structural and electronic properties of the interface materials, thus impacting the overall device performance [12,15,71]. Figures 3(e), (f) shows the variation of photovoltaic parameters with KSnI 3 /Cu 2 O interface defect density.…”

“…The maximum PCE of 14.63% is attained using Sn-based PSC [10]. Recently, a number of studies reported KSnI 3 as a potential candidate for absorber layers due to less toxicity and sustainability [11][12][13][14][15]. However, their stability and performance should be addressed for their use in PSCs.…”

Optimization of Perovskite-KSnI3 Solar Cell by Using Different Hole and Electron Transport Layers: A Numerical SCAPS-1D Simulation

“…The parameters for the simulation are displayed in Table and include those obtained from previous literature. − Neutral-type defects are considered with a single energetic distribution at the middle of the bandgap for each material. The capture cross sections for electrons and holes are fixed at 10 15 cm 2 .…”

“…The simulated PSC with KSnI 3 absorber and advanced CTLs showed an optimized efficiency of 9.776% . The lead-free performance of KSnI 3 -based PSC with phthalocyanine-based CTL showed a PCE of 11.91% . Thus, the authors investigated the influence of different ETLs and HTLs on the performance of PSCs with the KSnI 3 absorber.…”

Morphological, optical and electrochemical properties of tin(II) 2,3-naphthalocyanine for organic electronic applications

“…Also, the molecular structure and optoelectronic characteristics can be simply modified to improve charge transport, radiative recombination, or photogeneration depending on the needed pioneer technological optoelectronic applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Due to the excellence of phthalocyanines as electronic and optical materials, experimentalists and computational researchers have explored their structural, optical, electrical, and optoelectronic properties in excessive detail [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Naphthalocyanines are planar π-extended phthalocyanine derivatives with good chemical and thermal stability.…”