Fabrication of ambient processed carbon-based inorganic silver bismuth iodide solar cells without any expensive hole transport materials

Abstract

Recently, tremendous progress has been made in inorganic–organic hybrid lead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Still, most of the reported high-efficiency PSCs were made with harmful lead (Pb), which is one of the major obstacles to large-scale adoption. Silver bismuth iodide (AgBiI4) light absorbers have been identified as promising lead-free and low-toxic metal-halide materials for solar cell applications. Here, we present hole transport material (HTM) and lead-free carbon-based inorganic Rudorffite (AgBiI4) solar cells, which can be prepared by simple spin-coating using silver iodide and bismuth iodide precursors under ambient conditions. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible absorption, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) studies were used to characterize the deposited films. The performance of the fabricated device was studied using incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) and current density–voltage (J-V) characteristics. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used to investigate the charge transfer process at the interface of the fabricated device. Under standard illumination test conditions, the fabricated device showed a photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.04%. The devices also have good stability and retained 96% of their initial PCE after 200 hrs of storage in ambient conditions. This work demonstrates the potential of HTM-free, ambient processable, and lead-free Rudorffite stable solar cells.