High Power-Conversion Efficiency of Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells: A Theoretical Investigation

Ahmad Umar; Sadanand; Pravin Kumar Singh; D K Dwivedi; Hassan Algadi; Ahmed A Ibrahim; Mohsen A M Alhammai; Sotirios Baskoutas

doi:10.3390/mi13122201

High Power-Conversion Efficiency of Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells: A Theoretical Investigation

Micromachines (Basel). 2022 Dec 12;13(12):2201. doi: 10.3390/mi13122201.

Authors

Ahmad Umar^{1

2}, Sadanand^{1

3}, Pravin Kumar Singh⁴, D K Dwivedi⁵, Hassan Algadi⁶, Ahmed A Ibrahim¹, Mohsen A M Alhammai¹, Sotirios Baskoutas⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Arts, and Promising Centre for Sensors and Electronic Devices (PCSED), Najran University, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
³ Department of Applied Sciences, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida 201306, India.
⁴ Institute of Advanced Materials, IAAM, Gammalkilsvägen 18, 590 53 Ulrika, Sweden.
⁵ Photonics and Photovoltaic Research Lab, Department of Physics and Material Science, Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur 273010, India.
⁶ Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Najran University, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, 265 04 Patras, Greece.

Abstract

Solar cells based on lead-free perovskite have demonstrated great potential for next-generation renewable energy. The SCAPS-1D simulation software was used in this study to perform novel device modelling of a lead-free perovskite solar cell of the architecture ITO/WS₂/CH₃NH₃SnI₃/P3HT/Au. For the performance evaluation, an optimization process of the different parameters such as thickness, bandgap, doping concentration, etc., was conducted. Extensive optimization of the thickness and doping density of the absorber and electron transport layer resulted in a maximum power-conversion efficiency of 33.46% for our designed solar cell. Because of the short diffusion length and higher defect density in thicker perovskite, an absorber thickness of 1.2 µm is recommended for optimal solar cell performance. Therefore, we expect that our findings will pave the way for the development of lead-free and highly effective perovskite solar cells.

Keywords: SCAPS-1D; electron transport layer; hole transport layer; perovskite.

Grants and funding

The authors are thankful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at Najran University, Najran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for funding this work under the National Research Priority funding program, grant no. NU/NRP/SERC/11/1.