Outstanding Indoor Performance of Perovskite Photovoltaic Cells – Effect of Device Architectures and Interlayers

Abstract

Indoor photovoltaics is one of the best sustainable and reliable energy source for low power consumption electronics such as the rapidly growing Internet of Things. Perovskite photovoltaic (PPV) cells with three benchmark device architectures – mesoporous PPV (mPPV) and inverted PPV (iPPV) with alternative hole transporting layers (HTLs), and carbon‐based PPV (cPPV) are studied under a simulated indoor environment. The mPPV cell using typical Spiro‐OMeTAD as the HTL shows the highest maximum power density (Pmax) of 19.9 μW cm−2 under 200 lux and 115.6 μW cm−2 under 1000 lux (without masking), which is among the best of the indoor PV. Interestingly, when PTAA is used as the HTL in the mPPV cell, the Pmax drops to almost zero under indoor light environment while its performance under one sun remains similar. On the other hand, when PEDOT:PSS is replaced by Poly‐TPD as HTL in the iPPV cell, the Pmax under indoor light improves significantly and is comparable to that of the best mPPV cell. This significant difference in indoor performance correlates well with their leakage current. The HTL‐free cPPV cell, prepared by fully up‐scalable techniques, shows a promising Pmax of 16.3 and 89.4 μW cm−2 under 200 and 1000 lux, respectively. A practical scale 5 × 5cm2 cPPV module is fabricated as a demonstration for real applications.

Light-intensity and thickness dependent efficiency of planar perovskite solar cells: charge recombinationversusextraction

“…Such thicker devices will also yield higher performance for indoor light harvesting applications. 30 On the contrary, for concentrator photovoltaics where high irradiance is implemented to achieve higher power output per unit area, a PSC with relatively thin perovskite layer would yield higher PCEs.…”

“…26 The PCEs of solar cells typically varies with light intensity, where silicon photovoltaics normally exhibits reduced PCEs as light intensity is decreased 27,28 whereas in both OSCs and PSCs enhanced device efficiencies have been observed in some devices at light intensities below 1 sun. 29,30 Several studies have further investigated outdoor PSC performance in varied climates, 24,25 the results of which reveal variations in measured performance as light intensity varies. However for PSCs, systematic investigation of performance at intensities less or greater than 1 sun have been rare to date.…”

Thick‐Film Low Driving‐Force Indoor Light Harvesters

“…In addition to device performance, the ease of fabrication should be considered. [ 19–22 ] A thick‐film strategy can meet the requirements of current leading roll‐to‐roll (R2R) techniques, such as spray coating, doctor blading, screen printing, and slot die coating, because of pinholes in organic thin films can be eliminated. [ 23–28 ] A consensus of prerequisites for high‐efficiency thick‐film organic photovoltaic (OPV) device includes high absorbances, well‐formed D:A domains and interfaces for sufficient exciton separation, and desirable charge carrier transport.…”

Efficient indoor p-i-n hybrid perovskite solar cells using low temperature solution processed NiO as hole extraction layers

“…Hybrid perovskite solar cells have so far been mainly investigated for their performance under outdoor solar illumination with very few reports discussing the indoor photovoltaic performance of perovskite solar cells [25][26][27][28][29]. The tuneable bandgap (1.2-3.1 eV) of hybrid perovskites [30] and visible spectral range of indoor light sources give hybrid perovskites considerable potential for indoor light harvesting.…”