Underwater Performance Analysis of Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Herein, perovskite solar cells are fabricated and tested in underwater conditions in the laboratory. The fabricated perovskite solar cell (PSC) shows an efficiency of 14.29% outside water. It demonstrates an impressive power density of 10.49 and 11.88 mW cm−2 at a depth of 10 cm in seawater and deionized (DI) water environment, respectively. Compared with commercial silicon solar cells, PSCs are less affected by the water depth level due to their wide bandgap. The quantum efficiency measurement studies show that the perovskite solar cell is quite unaffected over the 400–800 nm wavelength in underwater environment. On the other hand, the spectral response of silicon solar cell is significantly hampered in the infrared region (700–1050 nm) due to light absorption by water. Absorption peaks of water correspond to the observed dips in quantum efficiency spectra of solar cells, indicating that light absorption due to water is primarily responsible for the decrease in photocurrent and electrical performance in underwater conditions.