Abstract
The power conversion efficiency of lead halide perovskite solar cells has been elevated to 25.2%. However, the toxicity of lead and the complex fabrication process of those cells considerably hinder the commercial application of such solar cells. Therefore, lead-free solar cells with comparable power conversion efficiency with a much lower environmental impact have recently attracted enormous attention in both academia and industry. This paper presents a theoretical study to assess the energy conversion capacity of lead-free perovskite solar cells with MASnI3 perovskite as its absorber layer using solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS). In particular, the effects of materials of the perovskite solar cells’ electron transport layers (ETLs) and hole transport layers (HTLs) on their energy conversion performance are elaborated. Our results show that Cd0.5Zn0.5S and MASnBr3 are the most suitable materials for ETL and HTL, respectively. It is also found from that the solar cell performance can be further enhanced through optimizing the thickness and defect density of its absorber layer. Moreover, the effects of defect densities in interface layers are investigated. In addition, the effects of ETL and HTL doping densities as well as influences of the back-contact work function and operating temperature of the tin-based perovskite solar cells are discussed. Finally, a glass substrate/FTO/Cd0.5Zn0.5S (ETL)/MASnI3/MASnBr3 (HTL)/back-contact solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 23.86% is recommended for further optimization.
Highlights
Perovskites are considered as promising candidate materials for photovoltaic solar energy conversion because of their outstanding photovoltaic properties such as long electron–hole diffusion length, large optical absorption coefficient, small carrier effective mass, low processing temperature, and strong excitonic transition
Commercial application of the MAPbI3 -based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is considerably hindered because the lead in MAPbI3 is very toxic [3,4,5], which leads to an appreciation of lead-free PSCs in the field of photovoltaic technology
Numerical simulations involved in this study are carried out using solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS) software, an efficient one-dimensional solar cell simulation program developed by researchers at the University of Ghent [24]
Summary
Perovskites are considered as promising candidate materials for photovoltaic solar energy conversion because of their outstanding photovoltaic properties such as long electron–hole diffusion length, large optical absorption coefficient, small carrier effective mass, low processing temperature, and strong excitonic transition. Among different types of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the organic–inorganic metal halide PSCs have received significant attention years because they have high power conversion efficiency (PCE) can be fabricated straightforwardly at relatively low cost [1,2]. A PSC should include an electron transport layer (ETL) and a hole transport layer (HTL) to maximize its power conversion efficiency by extracting and transporting photogenerated electrons, modifying the interface, aligning the interfacial energy level, and minimizing the charge recombination in PSC (for ETL [6]), as well as improving hole extraction and selectively blocking electrons to diminish electron–hole recombination on anode (for HTL [7]). The most commonly used materials for ETL and HTL are titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) and
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