Lead-Free FACsSnI3 Based Perovskite Solar Cell: Designing Hole and Electron Transport Layer

Abstract

In recent years, lead-based perovskites solar cells have demonstrated excellent power-conversion efficiency. Despite their remarkable progress, the commercialization of lead-based perovskites is hampered by lead toxicity concerns. The recently discovered non-toxic FACsSnI3 perovskite has the potential to replace lead-based perovskites in solar cell applications. Since the perovskite material FACsSnI3 (FA0.85Cs0.15SnI3) is relatively new, there is a lack of information, particularly regarding the design features required for electron and hole-transport layers for efficient photovoltaic responses. The important variables, such as electron affinity, energy band gap, film thickness, and doping density of both electron and hole-transport layers, were simulated and modeled separately and iteratively in this study to achieve the most efficient photovoltaic response. Finally, the absorber layer thickness of FACsSnI3 perovskite is tuned to achieve a maximum power-conversion efficiency of slightly more than 24%. We hope that the findings of this study will serve as a strong guideline for future research and the design of lead-free perovskite solar cells for efficient photovoltaic responses.

Simulation Design of Novel Non-Fluorine Polymers as Electron Transport Layer for Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells

“…As power conversion efficiency is a decisive parameter and it is maximum at 10 nm for each device (here only device D is shown), it can be justified that 10 nm is the optimum thickness of the hole transport layer for each device. This is because the optimal PEDOT:PSS doping density for each proposed device is obtained at 10 20 cm −3 through simulation, which is quite comparable to our previous results [7,61,62,[68][69][70]. For a perovskite-type solar cell, the optimal thickness of the hole transport layer can also be estimated using external quantum efficiency (EQE).…”

“…The general photovoltaic responses of solar cells, such as short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency, are identified using the solutions of these equations [53][54][55][56][57]. Detailed information about these models can be found in our previously published results [7].…”

“…Due to these efforts, perovskite solar cells are more advantageous than other types of solar cells in a number of aspects, including cost, weight, flexibility, portability, wide-area application, and low-temperature production [4,5]. Even though perovskite solar cells have made great advances in the laboratory environment, there are still a number of barriers to their general commercialization [6,7].…”

Comparative Study of Novel Non-Fluorine Polymers as Electron Transport Layer for Perovskite Solar Cell

“…From a variety of optical absorption models offered by SCAPS-1D, the conventional model for optical absorption is selected for this study and it is given below as Equation (7). According to this conventional model, the optical absorption coefficient " α " is defined as " α(λ)" and is dependent on the optical wavelength "λ" with energy "ℎ𝜈 ".…”

“…According to this conventional model, the optical absorption coefficient " α " is defined as " α(λ)" and is dependent on the optical wavelength "λ" with energy "ℎ𝜈 ". Equation (7) states that in this model, 𝐴 and 𝐵 are both arbitrary constants, and "𝐸 𝑔 " stands for the energy bandgap of the relevant thin-film layer and all these variables are interrelated as [57].…”