P-type wide bandgap semiconductor materials such as CuI, NiO, Cu2O and CuSCN are currently undergoing intense research as viable alternative hole transport materials (HTMs) to the spiro-OMeTAD in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Despite 23.3% efficiency of PSCs, there are still a number of issues in addition to the toxicology of Pb such as instability and high-cost of the current HTM that needs to be urgently addressed. To that end, copper thiocyanate (CuSCN) HTMs in addition to robustness have high stability, high hole mobility, and suitable energy levels as compared to spiro-OMeTAD HTM. CuSCN HTM layer use affordable materials, require short synthesis routes, require simple synthetic techniques such as spin-coating and doctor-blading, thus offer a viable way of developing cost-effective PSCs. HTMs play a vital role in PSCs as they can enhance the performance of a device by reducing charge recombination processes. In this review paper, we report on the current progress of CuSCN HTMs that have been reported to date in PSCs. CuSCN HTMs have shown enhanced stability when exposed to weather elements as the solar devices retained their initial efficiency by a greater percentage. The efficiency reported to date is greater than 20% and has a potential of increasing, as well as maintaining thermal stability.

No abstract

We present the rational synthesis of novel nanocrystals CuS (nc-CuS) by single source molecular precursor (SSMP) method. Among the present materials synthetic routes, the SSMP route is high efficient and comfortable way to construct nanostructured materials. Both CuS nanocrystals capped with hexadecylamine (HDA) and trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) have been synthesized by thermolysing bis (N-diisopropyldithiocarbamate)Cu (II) complex at 180 °C. Various physicochemical characterizations such as SEM images of nc-CuS exhibited uniform exfoliated surface morphologies with uniform continuous network of about 50 μm agglomerated particles. Our method could be broadly applicable for the preparation of other high quality yield metal sulfide nanostructures

No abstract