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Advanced Developments of Photovoltaic Devices and Perovskite Solar Cells

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A2: Solar Energy and Photovoltaic Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 9898

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jingjing Dong

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Guest Editor

School of Science, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: photovoltaic materials and devices; light-emitting diodes; nanomaterials and devices

Dr. Zhenjun Fan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Science, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: magnetic storage materials; metal organic framworks (MOF) materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the 21st century, the demand for energy has risen sharply. The use of traditional fossil energy such as coal, oil, and natural gas has brought serious environmental pollution. As a clean energy, solar energy has gradually entered the field of vision of researchers. Solar cells represent the most common way to develop and utilize solar energy, and its development has evolved through three generations. Among them, perovskite solar cells make up a new and promising type of solar cell. They have many advantages, such as high efficiency, low cost, and simple processing, and its power conversion efficiency has skyrocketed from 3.8% to 25.5% in 13 years. These achievements should be attributed to the advantages of perovskite-absorbing materials, such as high light absorption coefficients, long carrier diffusion lengths, and high defect tolerance.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances related to the perovskite materials, perovskite solar cells, and other perovskite devices.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to:

The preparation and characterization of perovskite materials, including perovskite crystals, perovskite thin films, perovskite quantum dots, two-dimension perovskite materials, and so on;
The preparation and characterization of perovskite solar cells;
The preparation and characterization of perovskite light-emitting diodes;
The novel applications of perovskite materials;
The theoretical calculation of perovskite solar cells and other perovskite devices;
Study on crystallization kinetics of perovskite materials.

Dr. Jingjing Dong
Dr. Zhenjun Fan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

perovskite
solar cells
PCE
crystal quality
stability

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 8394 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate, Methyl Methacrylate, and Polyvinylidene Fluoride as Encapsulating Materials for Perovskite-Based Solar Cells, Using the Low-Temperature Encapsulation Method in a Cleanroom Environment

by Luis Ocaña, Carlos Montes, Benjamin González-Díaz, Sara González-Pérez and Elena Llarena

Energies 2024, 17(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17010060 - 21 Dec 2023

Viewed by 731

Abstract

In this article, the development of a stable perovskite-based photovoltaic device manufactured in a controlled environment, with humidity between 40 and 65%, and encapsulated is presented. Encapsulation using polymers like ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and EVA combined with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was proposed due to the low curing temperatures, insulating properties, and simple deposition processes of these materials. Testing involved subjecting these materials to humidity, temperature, and UV irradiation, following the International Summit on Stability of Organic Photovoltaics (ISOS-T) protocols, and using a 24 W UV lamp. Characterization analyses were carried out using various technologies including digital microscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and electrical simulations. The results indicate that EVA-encapsulated samples displayed higher stability and resistance against external factors compared to PMMA and EVA-PVDF. Specifically, the EVA-encapsulated samples maintained a 15.06% power conversion efficiency (PCE) after the thermal cycles were carried out, reducing only by 0.9% compared to pristine samples. Similarly, after 350 h of UV exposure, they retained a PCE of 13.90%, decreasing by just 9.58% compared to the initial value. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Developments of Photovoltaic Devices and Perovskite Solar Cells)

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14 pages, 2033 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Performance of Efficient and Stable Planer Perovskite Solar Cell with an Effective Inorganic Carrier Transport Layer Using SCAPS-1D Simulation

by Safdar Mehmood, Yang Xia, Furong Qu and Meng He

Energies 2023, 16(21), 7438; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16217438 - 03 Nov 2023

Viewed by 795

Abstract

Organic–inorganic metal halide perovskite (OIMHP) has emerged as a promising material for solar cell application due to their outstanding optoelectronics properties. The perovskite-based solar cell (PSC) demonstrates a significant enhancement in efficiency of more than 20%, with a certified efficiency rating of 23.13%. Considering both the Shockley limit and bandgap, there exists a substantial potential for further efficiency improvement. However, stability remains a significant obstacle in the commercialization of these devices. Compared to organic carrier transport layers (CTLs), inorganic material such as ZnO, TiO₂, SnO₂, and NiO_X offer the advantage of being deposited using atomic layer deposition (ALD), which in turn improves the efficiency and stability of the device. In this study, methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI₃)-based cells with inorganic CTL layers of SnO₂ and NiO_X are simulated using SCAPS-1D software. The cell structure configuration comprises ITO/SnO₂/CH₃NH₃PbI₃/NiO_X/Back contact where SnO₂ and NiO_X act as ETL and HTL, respectively, while ITO is a transparent front-end electrode. Detailed investigation is carried out into the influence of various factors, including MAPbI₃ layer size, the thickness of CTLs, operating temperature parasitic resistance, light intensity, bulk defects, and interfacial defects on the performance parameters. We found that the defects in layers and interface junctions greatly influence the performance parameter of the cell, which is eliminated through an ALD deposition approach. The optimum size of the MAPbI₃ layer and CTL was found to be 400 nm and 50 nm, respectively. At the optimized configuration, the PSC demonstrates an efficiency of 22.13%, short circuit current (JSC) of 20.93 mA/m², open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 1.32 V, and fill factor (FF) of 70.86%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Developments of Photovoltaic Devices and Perovskite Solar Cells)

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12 pages, 2833 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Preparation of CsPbBr₃ Perovskite Solar Cells Using a Green Solvent

by Jiajie Cheng, Jiahao Yan, Jiaming Wang, Yufan Jiang, Jie Xing, Hao Liu, Huiying Hao and Jingjing Dong

Energies 2023, 16(18), 6426; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16186426 - 05 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1132

Abstract

An increasing number of researchers are interested in studying CsPbBr₃ perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to their high stability. However, the use of methanol during the spin-coating process is extremely hazardous, both to humans and the environment. CsBr is very soluble in water, but owing to its high specific heat capacity, water causes uneven crystallization and the creation of pores, which negatively impact the performance of CsPbBr₃ devices. In this paper, water is introduced as the solvent for CsBr in place of methanol to prepare CsPbBr₃ films and ethanol is used as the surface treatment solvent. The morphology and crystal quality of CsPbBr₃ films are improved by varying the concentration and spin-coating cycles of the CsBr/H₂O solution and adding ethanol post-treatment. The results show that high-quality CsPbBr₃ films with reduced grain boundaries and high phase-purity were obtained by spin-coating 100 mg/mL CsBr/H₂O solution three times and using ethanol as a post-treatment. The CsPbBr₃ solar cells yielded a maximum efficiency of 7.65% and demonstrate long-term stability over 1100 h. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Developments of Photovoltaic Devices and Perovskite Solar Cells)

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18 pages, 5535 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Long-Term Outdoor Testing of Perovskite Mini-Modules: Effects of FACl Additives

by Vasiliki Paraskeva, Maria Hadjipanayi, Matthew Norton, Aranzazu Aguirre, Afshin Hadipour, Wenya Song, Tommaso Fontanot, Silke Christiansen, Rita Ebner and George E. Georghiou

Energies 2023, 16(6), 2608; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16062608 - 09 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1581

Abstract

The outdoor performance monitoring of perovskite modules over 16 weeks is reported. Two different types of active perovskite layers were studied: one type contained formamidinium chloride (FACl) halide additives and the other contained no additives with the main purpose to investigate performance trends during the outdoor exposure of those type of devices. Long-term side-by-side outdoor testing of devices with and without halide additives was not implemented in the past and merits investigation in order to determine the impact of additives on perovskite performance and stability. Although the two types of modules displayed similar initial outdoor performance characteristics, their outdoor performance evolution differed. Different degradation rates between the modules with and without additives were obtained just after field installation. In particular, the modules with additives exhibited higher performance degradation under open-circuit loading conditions between current-voltage (IV) scans. Long-term monitoring of both modules recorded a reduction of the efficiency over the course of the day with subsequent recovery overnight and in many cases during the day. The relative values of performance degradation and overnight recovery were calculated over the timespan of outdoor testing and indicated dominant normalized diurnal performance degradation in one type of modules (without FACl additives) in the range between 15–20% and in the other type of modules (with additives) 5–10%. The dominant normalized performance recovery values found were 25–30% and 5–10%, respectively. Finally, dark lock-in thermography (DLIT) and Raman studies were performed on the exposed devices and revealed differences in hotspot evolution and vibrational modes between the different types of module. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Developments of Photovoltaic Devices and Perovskite Solar Cells)

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Review

Jump to: Research

32 pages, 7717 KiB

Open AccessReview

Stability and Performance Enhancement of Perovskite Solar Cells: A Review

by Maria Khalid and Tapas Kumar Mallick

Energies 2023, 16(10), 4031; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16104031 - 11 May 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3677

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have seen a rapid increase in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over just a few years and are already competing against other photovoltaic (PV) technologies. The PCE of hybrid PSCs exhibiting distinct properties has increased from 3.8% in 2009 to ≈30% in 2023, making it a strong contender for the next generation of PV devices. However, their long-term stability is a critical issue that must be addressed before these devices can be commercialised. This review begins with a discussion of the evolution of different generations of solar cells, and the following part presents details of perovskite characteristics and prospective strategies to improve their performance. Next, the relationship of stability of PSCs with different environmental conditions, including moisture, UV light, and temperature, is discussed. Besides the development of PSC–silicon tandem solar cells, an efficient way to improve PCE is also discussed. Towards the end, we discuss a novel idea of implementing PSCs with a concentrated PV application in order to achieve higher efficiency and compete with other PV technologies by catching incident high-proton density. This review offers perspectives on the future development of emerging PSC technologies in terms of device performance enhancement and improved stability, which are central to tandem and concentrated PSC technology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Developments of Photovoltaic Devices and Perovskite Solar Cells)

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16 pages, 3614 KiB

Open AccessReview

Energy Harvesting and Storage Devices through Intelligent Flexographic Technology: A Review Article

by Nuha Al Habis, Muna Khushaim and Saja M. Nabat Al-Ajrash

Energies 2023, 16(2), 869; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16020869 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1479

Abstract

Smart and mechanically flexible energy harvesting/storage devices are attractive for the immensely growing electronic, automobile, medical, and aerospace markets. The leading challenges with current devices are their limitations regarding installation on curvy design, high-manufacturing cost, and lower production rate. Therefore, new design strategies in terms of new materials, cost, and ability to scale up fabrication are imperative to meet the contemporary and future demands of these fast-growing markets. Flexographic printing is one of the newest technologies that promises cost-effective energy devices with better energy harvesting and high storage performance. Current knowledge, selection of suitable materials, and methods of flexographic printing for solar cell and battery construction are reviewed and summarized in this paper in comparison to existing printing technologies. The main purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive idea of flexographic printing for energy devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Developments of Photovoltaic Devices and Perovskite Solar Cells)

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