Author(s)

Souleymane Tuo^1*, Konan Boua Marc Kevin Koffi¹, Koffi Arnaud Kamenan², Joseph Datte³, Abé Simon Yapi⁴

¹Faculty of Sciences and Technologies, University of Man, Man, Côte d’Ivoire.
²Faculty of Biologicals Sciences, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, University of Peleforo Gon Coulibaly, Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire.
³Department of Physics, Normal Superior School, Cocody, Côte d’Ivoire.
⁴Laboratory of Technologies, University of Felix Houphouet Boigny of Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

In recent years, there has been remarkable progress in the performance of metal halide perovskite solar cells. Studies have shown significant interest in lead-free perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to concerns about the toxicity of lead in lead halide perovskites. CH₃NH₃SnI₃ emerges as a viable alternative to CH₃NH₃PbX₃. In this work, we studied the effect of various parameters on the performance of lead-free perovskite solar cells using simulation with the SCAPS 1D software. The cell structure consists of α-Fe₂O₃/CH₃NH₃SnI₃/PEDOT: PSS. We analyzed parameters such as thickness, doping, and layer concentration. The study revealed that, without considering other optimized parameters, the efficiency of the cell increased from 22% to 35% when the perovskite thickness varied from 100 to 1000 nm. After optimization, solar cell efficiency reaches up to 42%. The optimization parameters are such that, for example, for perovskite: the layer thickness is 700 nm, the doping concentration is 10²⁰ and the defect density is 10¹³ cm⁻³, and for hematite: the thickness is 5 nm, the doping concentration is 10²² and the defect concentration is 10¹¹ cm⁻³. These results are encouraging because they highlight the good agreement between perovskite and hematite when used as the active and electron transport layers, respectively. Now, it is still necessary to produce real, viable photovoltaic solar cells with the proposed material layer parameters.

CH₃NH₃SnI₃, α-Fe₂O₃, SCAPS 1D, Thickness, Doping Defect, Optimisation

Tuo, S. , Koffi, K. , Kamenan, K. , Datte, J. and Yapi, A. (2024) SCAPS 1D Simulation of a Lead-Free Perovskite Photovoltaic Solar Cell Using Hematite as Electron Transport Layer. Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Material Science, 14, 97-106. doi: 10.4236/mnsms.2024.144006.