Towards printed perovskite solar cells with cuprous oxide hole transporting layers: a theoretical design

Abstract

Solution-processed p-type metal oxide materials have shown great promise in improving the stability of perovskite-based solar cells and offering the feasibility for a low cost printing fabrication process. Herein, we performed a device modeling study on planar perovskite solar cells with cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O) hole transporting layers (HTLs) by using a solar cell simulation program, wxAMPS. The performance of a Cu 2 O/perovskite solar cell was correlated to the material properties of the Cu 2 O HTL, such as thickness, carrier mobility, mid-gap defect, and doping concentrations. The effect of interfacial defect densities on the solar cell performance was also investigated. Our simulation indicates that, with an optimized Cu 2 O HTL, high performance perovskite solar cells with efficiencies above 13% could be achieved, which shows the potential of using Cu 2 O as an alternative HTL over other inorganic materials, such as NiO x and MoO x . This study provides theoretical guidance for developing perovskite solar cells with inorganic hole transporting materials via a printing process.

Hexagonal Array of Mesoscopic HTM‐Based Perovskite Solar Cell with Embedded Plasmonic Nanoparticles

“…In spite of approximately similar absorption spectra for these two structures, the charge transportation in mesoscopic cell clearly improves relative to the planar one. In the other words, we gain [26] w Work function 3.9 eV [26] m n(p) Electron (hole) mobility 14 cm 2 V Á s À1 [26] e Dielectric permittivity 30 [26] N c(v) Conduction (valence) band effective density of state 2.5 Â 10 20 cm À3 [26] N A(D) Acceptor (donor) concentration 6 Â 10 14 cm À3 [32] t Carrier lifetime 14 ns [44] A SRH recombination 72.7 AE 2.6 ms À1 [44] B Radiative recombination 1.5 AE 0.1 Â 10 À10 cm 3 s À1 [44] C Auger recombination 3.4 AE 0.1 Â 10 À28 cm 6 s À1 [44] TiO 2 e r Relative dielectric permittivity 80 [45] w Work function $4 eV [3] NiO e r Relative dielectric permittivity 11.75 [26] E g Band gap energy 3.8 eV [26] w Work function $5.2 eV [46] better performance in mesoscopic PSC even with lower perovskite material mass than that of the planar PSCs. The absorption of NiO is illustrated in Figure 4(b).…”

“…The higher efficiency for PSCs demonstrated in tandem configurations . Currently, the most commonly used electron transporting materials (ETM) are TiO 2 , ZnO, and PCBM whereas the most efficient p‐type organic contacts are Spiro‐MeOTAD, PEDOT:PSS and also inorganic ones such as CuI, CuSCN, Cu 2 O, and NiO x …”

“…[15,16] Currently, the most commonly used electron transporting materials (ETM) are TiO 2 , [17,18] ZnO, [19,20] and PCBM [21,22] whereas the most efficient p-type organic contacts are Spiro-MeOTAD, [5] PEDOT:PSS [22] and also inorganic ones such as CuI, [23] CuSCN, [24] Cu 2 O, [25] and NiO x . [26][27][28][29][30][31] In the PSCs architecture, using inorganic materials as an ETM and HTM propose higher durability, mechanical stability, and possibility to reach robust and low-cost solar cells rather than organic ones. [32] Recently, Wang et al [21] demonstrated that the replacement of the organic hole transporting material (HTM) with an inorganic p-type mesoscopic HTM could improve the robustness of the device.…”

Inorganic p-Type Semiconductors: Their Applications and Progress in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells and Perovskite Solar Cells

“…An efficiency of 9.88% was first simulated for NiOx-based device to verify the experimental results with a thickness of 500 nm for the perovskite absorber layer. For high mobility Cu2O with 10-50 nm thickness, PSCs using Cu2O with 500 nm-thick perovskite absorber was further simulated to achieve a PCE of above 13% [146]. Photovoltaic parameters of CuSCN-, CuI, Cu2O-, CuO-based perovskite solar cells are summarized in Table 2 and their efficiency trends are shown in Figure 5.…”

Stability of organometal halide perovskite solar cells and role of HTMs: recent developments and future directions

“…For such type of material, the reported PCE was 8.93% with good stability over 30 days in the open air. 143,144 In 2014, Gratzel et al 145 performed considerable work on CuSCN as HTM and achieved 12.4% PCE. CuSCN HTM demonstrated performance owing to effective charge extraction and charge transportation from perovskite layer to top electrode.…”