scholarly journals Numerical Investigation of Cu2O as Hole Transport Layer for High-Efficiency CIGS Solar Cell

Author(s):  
Muhammad Hassan Yousuf ◽  
Faisal Saeed ◽  
Haider Ali Tauqeer

Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) is an inexpensive material that has the potential to dominate the next-generation photovoltaic (PV) industry. Here we detail computational investigation of CIGS solar cell with encouragement of adopting cuprous dioxide (Cu2O) as a Hole Transport Layer (HTL) for efficient fabricated CIGS solar cells. Although Cu2O as a HTL has been studied earlier for perovskite and other organic/inorganic solar cell yet no study has been detailed on potential application of Cu2O for CIGS solar cells. With the proposed architecture, recombination losses are fairly reduced at the back contact and contribute to enhanced photo-current generation. With the introduction of Cu2O, the overall cell efficiency is increased to 26.63%. The wide-band of Cu2O pulls holes from the CIGS absorber which allows smoother extraction of holes with experiencing lesser resistance. Further, it was also inferred that, HTL also improves the quantum efficiency (QE) for photons with large wavelengths thus increases the cell operating spectrum.

The researchers now days are avid of solar cells despite the efficiency issues. As lead-based halide perovskite exhibit toxic nature alternatives for the anti- toxic perovskite solar cells(PSCs) are gaining much research. Bis(sulfanylidene )tungsten is a toxic free feasible emerging option with direct band gap of value 1.8 eV. Tungsten disulfide is other chemical name of Bis(sulfanylidene)tungsten. In this paper, perovskite solar cell (PSC) with Bis(sulfanylidene)tungsten (WS2 ) as electron transport layer and spiro-OMeTAD as hole transport layer is modelled and simulated using SCAPS software to analyze performance parameters. The device simulations results are compared for comprehensive defect study of WS2 as ETL. With integration of WS2 and spiro-OMeTAD in the perovskite design, the outcomes are proficient enough with 25.96% of PCE, 22.06 mA/cm2 Jsc, 1.280V Voc and 91.76% FF. Launching the batch setup for absorber layer thickness further resulted with competent PCE 27.78%. The outcomes signified that the toxic-free WS2 based PSC can be a prominent upcoming perspective in terms of environmentally pristine nature and capitulate comparative high efficiency


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 886
Author(s):  
Shou-En Chiang ◽  
Qi-Bin Ke ◽  
Anjali Chandel ◽  
Hsin-Ming Cheng ◽  
Yung-Sheng Yen ◽  
...  

A high-efficiency inverted-type CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) solar cell was fabricated by using a ultrathin poly[3-(4-carboxybutyl)thiophene-2,5-diyl]-Na (P3CT-Na) film as the hole transport layer. The averaged power conversion efficiency (PCE) can be largely increased from 11.72 to 18.92% with a double-filtering process of the P3CT-Na solution mainly due to the increase in short-circuit current density (JSC) from 19.43 to 23.88 mA/cm2, which means that the molecular packing structure of P3CT-Na thin film can influence the formation of the MAPbI3 thin film and the contact quality at the MAPbI3/P3CT-Na interface. Zeta potentials, atomic-force microscopic images, absorbance spectra, photoluminescence spectra, X-ray diffraction patterns, and Raman scattering spectra are used to understand the improvement in the JSC. Besides, the light intensity-dependent and wavelength-dependent photovoltaic performance of the MAPbI3 solar cells shows that the P3CT-Na thin film is not only used as the hole transport layer but also plays an important role during the formation of a high-quality MAPbI3 thin film. It is noted that the PCE values of the best P3CT-Na based MAPbI3 solar cell are higher than 30% in the yellow-to-near infrared wavelength range under low light intensities. On the other hand, it is predicted that the double-filtering method can be readily used to increase the PCE of polymer based solar cells.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeongmin Lim ◽  
Seong Young Kong ◽  
Yong Ju Yun

Inorganic-organic mesoscopic solar cells become a promising alternative for conventional solar cells. We describe a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite-sensitized solid-state solar cells with the use of different polymer hole transport materials such as 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenyl-amine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD), poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT), and poly[[4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl][3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophenediyl]] (PTB7). The device with a spiro-OMeTAD-based hole transport layer showed the highest efficiency of 6.9%. Interestingly, the PTB7 polymer, which is considered an electron donor material, showed dominant hole transport behaviors in the perovskite solar cell. A 200 nm thin layer of PTB7 showed comparatively good efficiency (5.5%) value to the conventional spiro-OMeTAD-based device.


2018 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 01021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Istighfari Dzikri ◽  
Michael Hariadi ◽  
Retno Wigajatri Purnamaningsih ◽  
Nji Raden Poespawati

Research in solar cells is needed to maximize Indonesia’s vast solar potential that can reach up to 207.898 MW with an average radiation of 4.8 kWh/m2/day. Organometallic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have gained immense attention due to their rapid increase in efficiency and compatibility with low-cost fabrication methods. Understanding the role of hole transport layer is very important to obtain highly efficient PSCs. In this work, we studied the effect of Hole Transport Layer (HTL) to the performance of perovskite solar cell. The devices with HTL exhibit substantial increase in power conversion efficiency, open circuit voltage and short circuit current compared to the device without HTL. The best performing device is PSC with CuSCN as HTL layer, namely Voc of 0.24, Isc of 1.79 mA, 0.27 FF and efficiency of 0.09%.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meenakshi Pegu ◽  
Laura Calio ◽  
Mehrad Ahmadpour ◽  
Horst-Günter Rubahn ◽  
Samrana Kazim ◽  
...  

<p>Semi-transparent perovskite solar cells have the competitive edge of being employed for building integrated photovoltaics due to their aesthetic benefits as light harvesting windows / facades. Perovskites have received considerable attention in recent years as a thin film photovoltaic alternative, that can also be tweaked for its transparency, evolving from potentially high bandgaps that are suited for semi-transparent solar cell fabrication. Due to the existing trade of between the efficiency and transparency of a perovskite solar cell, tuning the band gap can address this by making a bridge between the aforementioned parameters. We report our findings on the use of a wide-bandgap perovskite MAPbBr<sub>3</sub>, with a rational energetic level hole transport materials based on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules that can be a promising alternative class of p-type material. In the present work, DBP (Dibenzo{[f,f' ]-4,4',7,7'-tetraphenyl}diindeno[1,2,3-cd :1',2',3'-lm]perylene, was evaluated with high band gap as well as with (FAPbI<sub>3</sub>)<sub>0.85</sub>(MAPbBr<sub>3</sub>)<sub>0.15 </sub>perovskites<sub> </sub>for the fabrication of solar cell. DBP based solar cells yielded competitive power conversion efficiencies as compared to classical HTMs.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Köbler ◽  
Mark V. Khenkin ◽  
Rajarshi Roy ◽  
Nga Phung ◽  
Quiterie Emery ◽  
...  

Abstract Over the past decade, perovskite solar cells have travelled an amazing way towards high efficiency. However, a major roadblock remaining is the operational stability, while achieving technological maturity and proving real-world stability is crucial to gain trust among investors. In that sense, it is of high interest to be able to predict the operational lifetime, which needs to be in the range of years or decades, within an experimentally reasonable timeframe. Yet, peculiarities of perovskite solar cells’ ageing behaviour lead to severe difficulties in translating the results of indoor tests to their outdoor counterpart. In particular, transient processes cause diverse results among different ageing tests.Here, for the first time, we show a complete set of constant illumination indoor testing, cycled illumination indoor testing and real-world outdoor testing on equal in-house devices. Exemplarily, we compare two different types of perovskite solar cells, in which only the hole-transport layer is varied. Despite this small change, the devices show distinctly different transient behaviour. In either case, the commonly used constant illumination experiments fail to predict the outdoor behaviour of the cell. Yet, we observe a good correlation between the cycled illumination test and the outdoor behaviour of one of the two solar cells, while this is not the case for the other system. This result highlights the urge for further research on how to perform meaningful accelerated indoor tests to predict the outdoor lifetime of perovskite solar cells.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3329
Author(s):  
Xinjian Geng ◽  
Mohamed Abdellah ◽  
Robert Bericat Vadell ◽  
Matilda Folkenant ◽  
Tomas Edvinsson ◽  
...  

The proliferation of the internet of things (IoT) and other low-power devices demands the development of energy harvesting solutions to alleviate IoT hardware dependence on single-use batteries, making their deployment more sustainable. The propagation of energy harvesting solutions is strongly associated with technical performance, cost and aesthetics, with the latter often being the driver of adoption. The general abundance of light in the vicinity of IoT devices under their main operation window enables the use of indoor and outdoor photovoltaics as energy harvesters. From those, highly transparent solar cells allow an increased possibility to place a sustainable power source close to the sensors without significant visual appearance. Herein, we report the effect of hole transport layer Li-TFSI dopant content on semi-transparent, direct plasmonic solar cells (DPSC) with a transparency of more than 80% in the 450–800 nm region. The findings revealed that the amount of oxidized spiro-OMeTAD (spiro+TFSI−) significantly modulates the transparency, effective conductance and conditions of device performance, with an optimal performance reached at around 33% relative concentration of Li-TFSI concerning spiro-OMeTAD. The Li-TFSI content did not affect the immediate charge extraction, as revealed by an analysis of electron–phonon lifetime. Hot electrons and holes were injected into the respective layers within 150 fs, suggesting simultaneous injection, as supported by the absence of hysteresis in the I–V curves. The spiro-OMeTAD layer reduces the Au nanoparticles’ reflection/backscattering, which improves the overall cell transparency. The results show that the system can be made highly transparent by precise tuning of the doping level of the spiro-OMeTAD layer with retained plasmonics, large optical cross-sections and the ultrathin nature of the devices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 140-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saqib Rafique ◽  
Shahino Mah Abdullah ◽  
Javed Iqbal ◽  
Asim Jilani ◽  
Sajith Vattamkandathil ◽  
...  

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