Performance Evaluation of Modified Zinc-Phthalocyanine Groups as an Active Material in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

The increasing demand for energy and electricity and the depletion of fossil fuels are global problems. In recent years, dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technologies have gained notoriety for their application in solar energy. DSSCs are considered a promising alternative renewable energy source to both inorganic and organic photovoltaic (PV) cells. Many types of dyes are being investigated to enhance the light-harvesting properties of DSSCs, but the actual realization of these absorbers in cell structure requires optimum parameters. The main aim of this study was to simulate proposed zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPC)-based structures to validate their design, assess their performance for commercial implementation, and optimize the cell parameters for optimum efficiency. To that end, Scaps-1D was employed to evaluate the performance of DSSCs to determine their optimum parameters. We found that ZnPC and isopropoxy ZnPC molecules outperform others molecules because of better optoelectronic properties. Several other parametric effects, such as photoactive layer thicknesses, doping densities, trap densities, and charge carrier mobilities, were also evaluated to observe their impact on device performance. The results show that moderate thickness, low defect density, moderate doping, and charge carrier mobility are favorable for better device performance due to low recombination losses, electrical losses, and better transport of charge carriers. The utmost power conversion efficiency values found for ZnPC- and ZnPC: PC70BM-based DSSCs after optimization were 9.50% and 9.81%. This paper also suggests a practical method for efficiently using DSSC cells by modifying factors that are significantly reliant on DSSC performance and output.