Novel Perovskite solar cell: Incorporating CNTs and Cu2O as charge carriers transport materials for performance enhancement - Opto-electrical modelling

This contribution aims to propose novel lead-free perovskite solar cells (PSCs), that incorporate the excellent charge carriers transport (CCT) properties of both carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and cuprous oxide (Cu2O), as a mean of addressing the current challenges of today PSC technologies that are cost-effectiveness, eco-friendly and long-term stability and more efficiency. Using SCAPS software, we carried out numerical modellings by replacing functional layers of a reference PSC, by substituting TiO2 with CNT, and spiroOMeTAD with Cu2O, respectively. In this regard, we performed calculations to better appraise current-voltage and quantum efficiency charac-teristics, as well as means of trapping incident light. The effects of absorber coating thicknesses, doping level, and external temperature were also investigated to further improve the efficiency. The proposed architecture incorporating CNT and Cu2O demonstrated promising results: Voc = 1.00 V, jsc = 34.65 mA/cm2, FF = 72.80 %, and PCE = 25.31 %. Simulating a defects - free active coat device enables to predict a PCE = 28 %. As a first theoretical proposal of a high efficiency and stability tin-PSC, that incorporates both CNTs and Cu2O as CCT materials, performance achieved are to date the highest recorded.

Automated summary

This study proposes a novel lead-free perovskite solar cell (PSC) design incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and cuprous oxide (Cu2O) to address the current challenges of cost-effectiveness, eco-friendliness, long-term stability, and efficiency. Numerical simulations were conducted using SCAPS software to evaluate current-voltage and quantum efficiency characteristics, as well as light trapping mechanisms. The proposed architecture achieved promising results with a Voc of 1.00 V, jsc of 34.65 mA/cm2, FF of 72.80%, and PCE of 25.31%.