Investigating the potential of CuSCN as hole transport layer for perovskite solar cells for applications in indoor photovoltaics

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Abstract

Indoor photovoltaics (IPV) has recently emerged as a sustainable and reliable energy technology to power the rapidly growing Internet of Things. Among various solar cell technologies, emerging perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have gained great interest for IPV; owing to their unique optoelectronic properties such as bandgap tunability to efficiently harvest the indoor light spectrum. The choice of hole transport layer (HTL) is critical for efficient PSCs, particularly in IPV applications to reduce the parasitic absorption losses in the indoor light spectrum. Here, we explore the potential of CuSCN to be used as a HTL for PSCs in IPV applications. We show that CuSCN-based PSC exhibits remarkable power conversion efficiency ( η) as compared to PSCs using conventional PEDOT:PSS as HTL. We explore the effects of wavelength ( λ) of incident photons and various design parameters of PSC for optimal cell operations. We show that at a particular perovskite thickness, CuSCN-based PSC exhibits ∼8%–12% higher η than that for PEDOT-based PSC, for all λ in the visible range of the spectrum. We further explore the effect of HTL doping/thickness on PSC performance and show that CuSCN-based PSC performs optimally for a wide range of doping/thickness of HTL. We also find that CuSCN-based PSC outperforms PEDOT-based PSC for a broad range of incident irradiance. Finally, we show that for large values of λ (i.e. λ = 700 nm), η exceeds 30%, close to the highest ever in the past work. The work presented in this study will provide guidance for the development of efficient PSCs for indoor applications.

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Efficient planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells by vapour deposition.

Mingzhen Liu, Michael B Johnston, Henry Snaith (2013)

Many different photovoltaic technologies are being developed for large-scale solar energy conversion. The wafer-based first-generation photovoltaic devices have been followed by thin-film solid semiconductor absorber layers sandwiched between two charge-selective contacts and nanostructured (or mesostructured) solar cells that rely on a distributed heterojunction to generate charge and to transport positive and negative charges in spatially separated phases. Although many materials have been used in nanostructured devices, the goal of attaining high-efficiency thin-film solar cells in such a way has yet to be achieved. Organometal halide perovskites have recently emerged as a promising material for high-efficiency nanostructured devices. Here we show that nanostructuring is not necessary to achieve high efficiencies with this material: a simple planar heterojunction solar cell incorporating vapour-deposited perovskite as the absorbing layer can have solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies of over 15 per cent (as measured under simulated full sunlight). This demonstrates that perovskite absorbers can function at the highest efficiencies in simplified device architectures, without the need for complex nanostructures.

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Promises and challenges of perovskite solar cells

Michael Saliba, Tonio Buonassisi, Michael Grätzel … (2017)

The efficiencies of perovskite solar cells have gone from single digits to a certified 22.1% in a few years' time. At this stage of their development, the key issues concern how to achieve further improvements in efficiency and long-term stability. We review recent developments in the quest to improve the current state of the art. Because photocurrents are near the theoretical maximum, our focus is on efforts to increase open-circuit voltage by means of improving charge-selective contacts and charge carrier lifetimes in perovskites via processes such as ion tailoring. The challenges associated with long-term perovskite solar cell device stability include the role of testing protocols, ionic movement affecting performance metrics over extended periods of time, and determination of the best ways to counteract degradation mechanisms.