Study of Eco-Friendly Organic-Inorganic Heterostructure CH3NH3SnI3 Perovskite Solar Cell via SCAPS Simulation

Lead-based organic-inorganic perovskite (OIP) materials have shown great possibilities as absorber materials in photovoltaic devices. Despite its better power conversion efficiency (PCE), the toxicity of lead limits its application in photovoltaic organic solar cells. This limitation has encouraged researchers to find an alternative lead-free organic perovskite material that must be eco-friendly. Therefore, in this present research work, we have proposed a lead-free OIP heterostructure solar cell using CH3NH3SnI3 as the absorber layer, Cu2O as the hole transport layer (HTL), TiO2 as the electron transport layer (ETL), and FTO as a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layer. Further, we have carried out a simulation study using SCAPS software to obtain a good performance of the proposed cell by optimizing various parameters. Thus, the obtained simulated results show that a moderate temperature of 305 K is necessary to achieve better cell efficiency. A significant decrease in efficiency is observed upon increasing the operating device temperature. Further, Gaussian energy distribution in the absorber OIP layer, CH3NH3SnI3 , shows better possibilities for obtaining a good performance from the proposed cell. On varying the Gaussian peak defect density from 1 x 10(16) cm(-3) to 6 x 10(20) cm(-3), the best-simulated result is offered at a concentration of 1.079 x 10(16) cm(-3). In addition, on varying the electron affinity of the active layer, we obtained the best result in its class at a value of 4.13 eV. Further, on energy band gap optimization of the active layer, we observed the maximum open-circuit voltage of 1.5 eV. Finally, all the performance parameters for the proposed OIP cell were found to be: PCE 18.27%, short-circuit current density 32.47 mA/cm(2), open-circuit voltage 0.7397 V, and FF 76.06%. Thus, we can proudly say that the present analysis may open a modern doorway for attaining clean energy.

Automated summary

This research proposes a lead-free hybrid solar cell with CH3NH3SnI3 as the absorber layer, Cu2O as the hole transport layer, TiO2 as the electron transport layer, and FTO as the transparent conducting oxide layer. Simulation studies show that a temperature of 305 K and a Gaussian peak defect density of 1.079 x 10(16) cm(-3) in the absorber layer can achieve the best performance. The results suggest that this analysis may open up new possibilities for clean energy.