Plasmon-Enhanced Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Inkjet-Printed Au Nanoparticles Embedded into TiO2 Microdot Arrays

Sofia Rubtsov; Albina Musin; Viktor Danchuk; Mykola Shatalov; Neena Prasad; Michael Zinigrad; Lena Yadgarov

doi:10.3390/nano13192675

Plasmon-Enhanced Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Inkjet-Printed Au Nanoparticles Embedded into TiO₂ Microdot Arrays

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Sep 29;13(19):2675. doi: 10.3390/nano13192675.

Authors

Sofia Rubtsov¹, Albina Musin², Viktor Danchuk¹, Mykola Shatalov¹, Neena Prasad¹, Michael Zinigrad¹, Lena Yadgarov¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Materials, Faculty of Engineering, Ariel University, Ariel 4076414, Israel.
² Physics Department, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Ariel University, Ariel 4076414, Israel.

Abstract

The exceptional property of plasmonic materials to localize light into sub-wavelength regimes has significant importance in various applications, especially in photovoltaics. In this study, we report the localized surface plasmon-enhanced perovskite solar cell (PSC) performance of plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) embedded into a titanium oxide (TiO₂) microdot array (MDA), which was deposited using the inkjet printing technique. The X-ray (XRD) analysis of MAPI (methyl ammonium lead iodide) perovskite films deposited on glass substrates with and without MDA revealed no destructive effect of MDA on the perovskite structure. Moreover, a 12% increase in the crystallite size of perovskite with MDA was registered. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) techniques revealed the morphology of the TiO₂_MDA and TiO₂-AuNPs_MDA. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation was employed to evaluate the absorption cross-sections and local field enhancement of AuNPs in the TiO₂ and TiO₂/MAPI surrounding media. Reflectance UV-Vis spectra of the samples comprising glass/TiO₂ ETL/TiO₂_MDA (ETL-an electron transport layer) with and without AuNPs in TiO₂_MDA were studied, and the band gap (E_g) values of MAPI have been calculated using the Kubelka-Munk equation. The MDA introduction did not influence the band gap value, which remained at ~1.6 eV for all the samples. The photovoltaic performance of the fabricated PSC with and without MDA and the corresponding key parameters of the solar cells have also been studied and discussed in detail. The findings indicated a significant power conversion efficiency improvement of over 47% in the PSCs with the introduction of the TiO₂-AuNPs_MDA on the ETL/MAPI interface compared to the reference device. Our study demonstrates the significant enhancement achieved in halide PSC by utilizing AuNPs within a TiO₂_MDA. This approach holds great promise for advancing the efficiency and performance of photovoltaic devices.

Keywords: TiO2; inkjet printing; localized surface plasmon resonance; perovskite solar cells; plasmonic Au nanoparticles.

Grants and funding

We acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Energy, Israel, through their support of this research under contract number: 221-11-042. and 222-11-010.