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A lead-free inorganic Cs2TiX6-based heterostructure perovskite solar cell design and performance evaluation

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Abstract

Perovskite materials are already showing their promising potential in solar cell development through their performance. To improve the performance to a greater extent, researchers have always explored different organic and inorganic materials compositions, among which CH3NH3PbI3 is one of the most studied and analyzed. However, the popularity of lead (Pb) based perovskite materials has been held back in large-scale applications and the manufacturing industry due to its higher toxicity levels. Researchers turned to alternative lead-free inorganic perovskite materials for their comparative stability and non-toxic behaviors. This manuscript explores the performance of a lead-free Cs2TiX6-based n–i–p type heterostructure perovskite solar cell design performed using a one-dimensional device simulator, also known as the SCAPS-1D. Here, the design holds Cs2TiCl6 as an n-type front absorber, Cs2TiI6 as an I (intrinsic)-layer absorber and Cs2TiBr6 as a p-type absorber. Again, NiO (p) and ZnO (n) are utilized as the hole transport material and electron transport material, respectively. The fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) acts as a front contact, conductive oxide, while Pt (platinum) is used as the back contact. Then the results of the proposed cell architecture were evaluated by varying parameters such as absorber thickness, doping concentration, work function for the back contact, various resistance types, operating temperature, and defect densities. After optimization, the fill factor (FF), device efficiency, open circuit voltage (Voc), and short circuit current density (Jsc) for our device stands at 80%, 27.36%, 1.3505 V, and 24.707735 mA/cm2, respectively. Gaining a higher efficiency value of our solar cell while being lead-free inorganic material-based will surely give researchers a roadmap of future research directions.

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  1. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Southeast University, Block B, House 64 Rd No 18, Dhaka, 1213, Bangladesh

    Md. Ashraful Islam

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, One Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY, 14623, USA

    Robi Paul

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The authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and design of the research. RP and MdAI was equally responsible for all aspects of material preparation, data gathering, and analysis for this work.

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Islam, M.A., Paul, R. A lead-free inorganic Cs2TiX6-based heterostructure perovskite solar cell design and performance evaluation. Opt Quant Electron 55, 957 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-023-05238-1

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