Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV22)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.hopv.2022.098
Publication date: 20th April 2022
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are extensively studied solar cell materials (methyl ammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) in particular) due to their promising optoelectronic properties. A significant challenge remaining with this class of photovoltaic materials is their long-term stability under different environmental conditions which has hindered the global commercialisation of PCSs. Focusing on this challenge, we studied the influence of ZnCl2 additives on CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite fabricated in ambient conditions. This investigation aimed to contribute further understanding to previous work conducted by Qilin et.al., where they reported a performance improvement in perovskite solar cells made of MAPbI3 with ZnCl2 additives in a nitrogen-controlled atmosphere.
By using eco-friendly materials such as SnO2 as ETL and poly-triarylamine (PTAA) as HTL, we were able to fabricate perovskite solar cells in a more industrially feasible environment with an improved perovskite absorbing morphology. In our investigation, we noticed that by partially substituting lead iodide (PbI2) with a small percentage of ZnCl2 (1% to 3%) to the perovskite precursor, the absorbing layer morphology, as determined by scanning electron microscopy, is very much improved and this might be due to the formation of multiple nucleation centers that allows rapid formation of the crystalline surface that adopts a uniform compact grain distribution, but as the percentage of the additive is increased (∼6%) the distribution of grain sizes shrinks which results in a relative increase in the area of grain boundaries present within the samples. The bandgap energy of the perovskite material remains the same at 1.58 eV, even when a high percentage of the ZnCl2 is added indicating that the presence of the additives has little or no effect on the bulk perovskite composition or crystalline structure. Therefore, we attribute the changes in device performance to the variations in the grain size distribution, changing area of grain boundary present, and/or associated passivation of defects at grain boundaries. The charge carrier lifetime of the perovskite materials as a function of ZnCl2 content has been used to study associated changes in charge carrier dynamics. The ability of ZnCl2 when used as an additive to improve the efficiency and long-term stability of PSCs fabricated in the air is determined.
We will like to thank and express our gratitude to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund-Nigeria in Collaboration with the University of Sheffield for financially supporting this project, we are also grateful to Daniel Hook from the Physics Department and Tesoro Monaghan from Nano-materials Characterisation Department for their tremendous efforts in assisting us to analyze some of our samples.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.