Enhancement of Perovskite-Based Solar Cells Employing Core–Shell Metal Nanoparticles

Abstract

Recently, inorganic and hybrid light absorbers such as quantum dots and organometal halide perovskites have been studied and applied in fabricating thin-film photovoltaic devices because of their low-cost and potential for high efficiency. Further boosting the performance of solution processed thin-film solar cells without detrimentally increasing the complexity of the device architecture is critically important for commercialization. Here, we demonstrate photocurrent and efficiency enhancement in meso-superstructured organometal halide perovskite solar cells incorporating core-shell Au@SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) delivering a device efficiency of up to 11.4%. We attribute the origin of enhanced photocurrent to a previously unobserved and unexpected mechanism of reduced exciton binding energy with the incorporation of the metal nanoparticles, rather than enhanced light absorption. Our findings represent a new aspect and lever for the application of metal nanoparticles in photovoltaics and could lead to facile tuning of exciton binding energies in perovskite semiconductors.

Mixed‐Organic‐Cation Tin Iodide for Lead‐Free Perovskite Solar Cells with an Efficiency of 8.12%

“…The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs has been boosted from an initial 3.8%1 to an astounding 22.1%,2 which benefitted from the merits of lead (Pb) halide materials (APbX 3 , A = Cs + , CH 3 NH 3 + , NH 2 CH = NH 2 + , etc. ; X = I − , Br − , Cl − ), such as high absorption coefficient,3, 4 small exciton binding energy,5, 6 and long carrier diffusion lengths 7, 8. However, the bandgaps of Pb‐based perovskites are normally larger than 1.4 eV, which is not ideal for approaching the Shockley–Queisser limit (33%) that corresponds to a bandgap of 1.34 eV 9, 10.…”

Influence of Schottky contact on the C-V and J-V characteristics of HTM-free perovskite solar cells

“…Using ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS), these authors indeed showed that during the deposition of the gold contact, the Fermi level undergoes a progressive shift. Noteworthy, the presence of metal nano particles [60] or charged ions [61][62][63] at the interface was discussed by other groups. This Fermi level shift is simulated in the present work by introducing an effective and heavily n-doped CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 IF.…”

First-principles calculations of phonons and Raman spectra in monoclinicCsSnCl3

“…In the spectrum corresponding to B u (x) we can see six peaks in Im ε(ω) with corresponding peaks increasingly split away by LO-TO splitting in the −Im ε −1 (ω). They correspond to modes 1, 2, 5, (6,7), (8,9), 12, where groups put together in parentheses form one peak because of their closeness in frequency. The highest LO-TO splitting for non-analyticity in the x direction, i.e.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Recently, about 16 % energy conversion efficiencies have been achieved by using these materials in different solar cell designs. 4,8,10,15 Although high conversion efficiencies have been realized, the underlying reasons for this success and the stability of the materials are not yet fully understood.…”