Cutting Edge Energy Strategies for Green Building

Perovskite Photo Voltaic Cells

Chaitanya kota
University of Florida, Gainesville

Author Note
Graduate Student
University of Florida, Gainesville
Correspondence kota1991@ufl.edu
UFID 2914-3535

Abstract
Energy from the sun is clean and nearly inexhaustible. The most promising
way to harvest solar energy are the photovoltaics. They can directly convert the
solar energy into electricity. In the field of solar photo voltaic cells, crystalline silicon
is most widely commercialized. The problem is their performance and efficiency are
limited and also cost of manufacturing is high. Dye sensitized, Quantum Dot Solar
Cells are one of the key emerging solar cells and can be manufactured at low
temperatures which promises low costs. But the power conversion efficiency is

comparatively very less with respect to the commercial Silicon based PV cells. In the
recent past, Perovskite Solar Cells are the latest and one of the most promising solar
cells developed. Though the perovskite materials are known for many years, the
very first solar cell was developed in 2009 with an efficiency of 3.8%. It was the first
time in the history that a PV cells were made at such a low cost and can still be
efficient. Now, the efficiency has increased five folds and has gone more than 21%.
Here, in this paper we discuss the various advancements in the perovskites and
review the milestone work that had happened in the field since 2009.
Keywords: Photovoltaics, Perovskites, Cutting Edge, Renewable Energy Systems.

History
Though the Perovskites are known for years, it was in 2009 that they were
first introduced into a Solar Cell, which was based on a dye-sensitized solar cell. The
power conversion efficiency achieved was 3.8%. Initially, the cell was only stable for
a few minutes as a liquid corrosive electrolyte was used. Later on the by 2011, the
power conversion efficiency was improved to 6.5% using the same dye-synthesized
concept. In 2012, a breakthrough came from the University of Oxford by Henry
Snaith and Mike Lee when it was realized that the perovskite can be made stable if
contacted with solid-state hole transporter. By the end of 2013, there were number
of developments in both planar and sensitized architectures. Burschka et al.
achieved an efficiency of 15% by two step solution processing. And by 2014 even
higher efficiency rates were achieved by Yang Yang at the University of California,
Los Angeles. A reverse-scan efficiency of 19.3% has been claimed by Yang Yang. By
December 2015, researchers at cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne(EPFL)
Lausanne, Switzerland has set a new record with an efficiency of 21.0%.

Fig. 1. Comparative graph showing the growth of Perovskite Solar Cells, Image
from Scienceblogs.com

What are Perovskite Solar Cells?

The typical perovskite structure can be expressed by the general formula
XYM, in a ratio of :: of 3:1:1. Here, X is a halogen atom, Y is an alkylamine
compound and M is a mixture of lead and antimony. Over the traditional silicon
photovoltaic cells, the perovskite solar cells have the advantage in manufacturing
facilities required. The manufacturing of the silicon photovoltaics is expensive,
requires multiple steps and also requires high temperatures greater than 1800 F
with high vacuum special clean room facilities. While the perovskites can be
prepared in a traditional lab environment, which decreases the cost and simplifies
the complexity when compared with the silicon types. It is a type of Solar Cell which
comprises of Perovskite Crystal Structure which usually consists of an organic
group, a metal like lead or tin, and a Halogen. One of the most prominent types of
perovskite cells is methyl ammonium lead iodide. Perovskites which are based on
lead halide materials have been used make optoelectronic devices such as lasers,
photodetectors and LEDs though solar cells were most widely studied.

Efficiency Limits:
Bandgaps in the perovskites are tunable and can be optimized for the solar
spectrum. These cells are able to achieve the Shockley Queisser radio efficiency
limit which is about 31%, for a perovskite bandgap of 1.55 eV. For perovskite solar

cells, the dominant non-radiative recombination process is the bimolecular (or

Shockley-Read-Hall) recombination.
Therefore, the non-radiative current can be expressed as

where
and

is the monomolecular (recombination) rate,

is the intrinsic carrier density,

is the cell thickness.

There were many studies, along with the analytical calculations to find the

characteristics of the perovskite solar cells. Defect levels, effective mass, variable
densities, effective mass and defect levels of various perovskite materials were
tried to calculate. Also various studies were made to find the device mechanism
based on simulations to analyze the ideal efficiency.

Fig. 2: Perovskite cell architecture (Source: Wikimedia Commons )

1. Common Structures for Perovskite Solar Cells

1.1 Liquid-Electrolyte Dye-Sensitized Cells
1.2 Mesoporous Structure
1.3 Planar n-i-p Structure
1.4 Planar p-i-n Structure
1.5 HTL-Free Cells
1.6 ETL-Free Cells
1.7 Further Investigations
2.Advanced Structures for Perovskite Solar Cells
2.1 Flexible Cells
2.2 Cells with a Carbon Electrode
2.3 Semitransparent Cells
2.4 Tandem Cells
2.4.1 4-Terminal Tandem Cells
2.4.2 2-Terminal Tandem Cells
2.4.3 All Perovskite Tandem Cells
2.5 Integrated Cells
2.5.1 Perovskite/Bulk Heterojunction Integrated Cells
2.5.2 Perovskite/Quantum Dots Integrated Cells

2.6 Switchable Cells

In general, there are two different types of perovskite cells. They are
1. Sensitized cells.
a. In sensitized cells, the perovskite material is coated onto a chargeconducting material. The perovskite simply absorbs light, and
afterwards the charge is conducted to the electrodes via the other
material
2. Planar thin film cells.
a. In the planar thin film type, the layer of perovskite both absorbs the
light and transfers the charge to the electrodes.

Applications of Perovskite Solar Cells

3.1 Water Photolysis
3.2 Wearable Power Source
3.3 Photodetector
In their paper for Scientific American, Varun Sivaram, Samuel Stranks, and
Henry Snaith stated that the solar panels in the future might be transparent,
flexible, highly efficient and might be able to coat shingles and windows with them.
Short-term and Long-term stability are one of the biggest challenges for the
perovskite solar cells. Rapid degradation in moist conditions is due to the water
solubility of the organic compounds in the absorber material. Recent studies reveal
that replacing the organic transport layer with metal oxide layer would retain the
cells capacity up to 90% after 60 days.
Out of all the perovskite solar cells developed, the construction industry is
most benefited with the Semi-Transparent and Flexible types of perovskites. There

are a lot of applications in for the semitransparent applications such as using them
in the Windows, Cladding of the Buildings, Sky lights. The thickness of the
perovskite decides the transparency of the cell. In semitransparent cells, a thin
metal layer is often used as the transparent electrode. The transparency and the
conductivity of the electrode were improved by experimenting different
configurations. One the types of the electrodes use Silver Nanowire which has a
peak transmittance of 77% at 800 nm thickness.

Fig. 3. a) Structure of a semitransparent perovskite solar cell; b)

transmittance spectra for semitransparent perovskite solar cells with different
CH3NH3PbI3 layer thickness; c) structure of semitransparent perovskite solar
cells with solution-processed AgNWs electrode; d) transmittance spectra for

the device before and after AgNWs deposition. a,b) Copyright 2015, Elsevier.
c.d) Copyright 2015, Royal Society of Chemistry

Conclusions and Perspectives

High efficiency rates, low manufacturing costs, tunable bandgap and high
absorption coefficient of the perovskites increase the drive for more research on
them to advance quickly. Power conversion efficiencies over 21% were achieved in
the recent past. Semitransparent and flexible photovoltaics were manufactured with
the perovskites. Stability is of the major concerns about the perovskites. Along with
it, lead is also a major concern as it exists in a water soluble form. Good stability
under full sunlight and high temperature was obtained for fully printable
mesoscopic perovskite solar cells containing triple mesoporous layers. In the
mesoscopic perovskite solar cells containing triple mesoporous layers, good stability
was achieved under full sunlight and high temperatures. Highly efficient,
environmental friendly and stable versions of the perovskites can be found in near
future. Though with drawbacks, the perovskite solar cells have an incredible
potential for the growth with their high efficiency and low cost production.

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