Configuration of Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cell and its Effect on the Device's Performance: A Review

Abstract

Since it is a source of clean energy, harnessing solar power is a natural solution to resolving the prevalent energy crisis. A solar cell is the most effective device to convert solar energy into electricity. Hence, a study on solar cells is the utmost area of interest in the energy sector.As illustrated in Figure 1, there are three generations of solar cells. Among these, the first-generation cells were of p-n homojunction on a silicon crystal, where the thickness of the absorbing layer was more than 180 µm. Mainly, silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge), indirect bandgap materials, assemble the cell. Single crystal silicon solar cells exhibit a conversion efficiency of about 26.7% and dominate the current solar cell market. [2] The second-generation solar cells are heterojunction solar cells using direct bandgap thin film materials (CdS, CIGS, etc.). The demerits of the first and second-generation solar cells are the cost of semiconducting materials, limited availability, and toxicity to human health. Emerging thirdgeneration solar cells act as an alternative. These include dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs), organic photovoltaics, quantum dots, and perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Among all those, PSCs are at the center of the emerging photovoltaic technology with rapid improvement in the performance within a few years of discovering the first perovskite cell. Figure 2 depicts the different types of solar cells and their developmental trend for the past 46 years, showing that the performance of the PSCs has improved dramatically during a short period.The foundation technology for PSCs is DSSCs. In 1991, O'Regan and Grätzel developed a low-cost photochemical solar cell based on a high surface area nanocrystalline TiO 2 film sensitized with dye molecule. [4] The primary concern of DSSCs is the use of liquid electrolytes, which regenerate the dye after it injects electrons into the conduction band (CB) of the working electrodes (anode), which are mainly the thin layer of the metal oxide semiconductor. The electrolyte also acts as a hole transporting material to the counter electrodes (cathode). [5] The solid-state hole conductor emerged as a replacement to minimize leakage concerns in liquid electrolyte-based DSSCs. With several modifications in the device structures, researchers are trying to synthesize efficient DSSCs. However, the low absorption coefficientIn its initial phase in 2009, the inorganic-organic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) delivered a 3.8% power conversion efficiency (PCE), which is far below the present 25.7% PCE obtained in 2022. The significant improvement of the efficiency of PSCs in such a short period has stimulated significant interest in the photovoltaic community. However, the performance of current PSCs is behind the commercially available and widely used solar cells in terms of stability and scalability. Among various commonly studied perovskite materials, methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ) is the most widely studied. This review will focus on the common solar cell structures (mesoporo...

Gas‐Quenching Approach for Fabricating Cs2AgBiBr6 Thin Films in Ambient Environment for Lead‐Free All‐Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells with Carbon Electrodes

“…The performance of perovskite solar cells is influenced by several factors, such as the fabrication atmosphere, device configuration, and charge transporting layers. [ 40–45 ] Therefore, a direct comparison between our results and those reported in the literature may not be suitable. However, it is evident that the performance of the cell in our study can compete with those reported in the literature, indicating that the gas‐quenching approach applied in our study can serve as a viable alternative to the other approaches used in the literature.…”

How cation nature controls the bandgap and bulk Rashba splitting of halide perovskites

“…Thereby, the following configurations were considered for the valence electrons: Cs (5s 2 , 5p 6 , 6s 1 ), H (1s 1 ), C (2s 2 , 2p 2 ), N (2s 2 , 2p 3 ), Pb (5s 2 , 5d 10 , 6s 2 , 6p 2 ), and I (5s 2 , 5p 5 ). The integration over the Brillouin zone were calculated via DFT-1/2 quasiparticle correction, 56 which is based on Slater's half-ion technique.…”

“…Metal halide perovskites (MHPs) applied in photovoltaic devices, such as perovskite solar cells (PSCs), have achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCE) as high as for 1 . This impressive performance can be attributed to their suitable optical and electronic properties, such as high absorption coefficients in the UV–visible region, 2–4 low exciton binding energies, 5–8 and long carrier lifetimes 9 and diffusion lengths 10 .…”

Additive Engineering for Stable and Efficient Dion–Jacobson Phase Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Halide perovskites have acted well in outstanding solar cells which achieved a best efficiency of 25.7% [ 1 – 5 ] and are driving current photovoltaic technology development [ 6 – 8 ]. Nevertheless, the weak stability of halide perovskites stays an essential problem that has to be addressed before this low-priced and solution-processable photovoltaic equipment can be commercialized on a large scale [ 9 , 10 ].…”