Experimental and numerical investigations on feasibility of inorganic KSnCl3 perovskite absorber and SWCNT-HTL for solar cells

Zain Ul Abdin; Irfan Qasim; Muhammad Imran Malik; Muhammad Rashid

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14802

Experimental and numerical investigations on feasibility of inorganic KSnCl₃ perovskite absorber and SWCNT-HTL for solar cells

Heliyon. 2023 Mar 24;9(4):e14802. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14802. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Zain Ul Abdin¹, Irfan Qasim¹, Muhammad Imran Malik², Muhammad Rashid³

Affiliations

¹ Materials Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, (FEAS), Riphah International University, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
² School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
³ Department of Physics, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, 32200, Pakistan.

Abstract

Inorganic metal halide perovskite materials have attracted remarkable attention as light harvesters because of their promising optoelectronic merits and photovoltaic features like tunable band gaps, high charge carrier mobilities and greater absorption coefficients. In order to explore new inorganic perovskite materials for use in optoelectronic devices Potassium Tin Chloride (KSnCl₃) has been experimentally synthesized using a supersaturated recrystallization technique at ambient conditions. The resultant nanoparticle (NP) specimens were analyzed for optical and structural properties by characteristic available techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and UV visible spectroscopy. Experimental investigations about structure reveals that KSnCl₃ crystallizes in orthorhombic phase with particle size of 400-500 nm. SEM showed better crystallization and EDX confirmed the accurate structural composition. UV-Visible analysis indicated a prominent absorption peak at 504 nm, and the band gap is 2.70 eV. Theoretical investigations of KSnCl₃ were also carried out via AB-initio calculations in Wein2k simulation program using modified Becke Johnson (mBJ) and generalized gradient approximations (GGA). Optical properties like extinction coefficient k (ω), complex parts of dielectric constant (ε ₁, ε ₂), reflectivity R (ω), refractive index n (ω), optical conductivity L (ω) and absorption coefficient α (ω) were examined and it was observed that _. theoretical investigations were consistent with experimental findings. Incorporation of KSnCl₃ as an absorber material along with single walled carbon nanotubes as p-type materials in (AZO/IGZO/KSnCl₃/CIGS/SWCNT/Au) solar cell configuration have been investigated by SCAPS-1D simulation package. Open circuit voltage (V_oc) of 0.9914 V, short circuit current density (J_sc) of 47.32067 mA/cm² and a remarkable efficiency of 36.823% with has been predicted. Thermally stable KSnCl₃ may become potential source in manufacturing of photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications on large scale.

Keywords: Electrical; Nanotubes; Optical; Optoelectronic; Photovoltaic.