Design and simulation of 3D perovskite solar cells based on titanium dioxide nanowires to achieve high-efficiency

Abstract

The advantages of perovskite solar cells over other photovoltaic technologies in recent years lead many works to improve the efficiency of these solar cells. The short circuit current density of perovskite solar cells can be improved using 3D structures. The structure that we present is consists of a perovskite layer on a nanowire metal oxide scaffold layer. The morphology of these layers is determined by using a 3D structure algorithm. In this paper, we simulated perovskite solar cells based on the TiO2 nanowire scaffold layer, which acts as an electron transport layer and a 3D scaffold layer, by using FDTD and FE simulation methods. These methods are respectively used for optical and electrical simulations. According to our simulation results and with our proposed and optimized structure, the maximum power conversion efficiency that we have reached is 18.9%. We ignored some practical limitations to achieve this efficiency. The Period and height of nanowires for this structure are 100 nm and 400 nm respectively. All these dimensions are determined by reviewing the practical papers, so these dimensions can be applied in practical cases. Also in this study, when we apply all recombinations and practical limits, we achieved 14.7% PCE that showed 61% improvement than conventional flat structure perovskite solar cells. Both of these power conversion efficiencies that we achieved can compete against conventional silicon solar cells. Because producing these perovskite solar cells with metal oxide nanowires especially TiO2 is much more affordable and convenient than conventional silicon solar cells.