Date of Award

5-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Discipline

Electrical Engineering

Abstract

The generation of low-cost electricity using renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic and wind power to replace fossil-fuel electrical power generation has grown to be an extensive and crucial area of research because of global warming. Recent research efforts range from the use of organic and inorganic materials to the incorporation of hybrid organic-inorganic materials in the fabrications of perovskite solar cells.

A perovskite photovoltaic is a kind of solar cell that incorporates a compound with a structure, usually a hybrid organic-inorganic tin halide or lead material base, as the light-collecting active layer. Photovoltaic devices using perovskites, for example, methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PBI3) based materials, are generally easy to fabricate compared to silicon-based devices. Because of their characteristics, such as long diffusion lengths of holes and electrons, high carrier mobility, broad absorption range of the light spectrum, and long carrier lifetime, perovskites have had a significant impact in the solid-state solar cell research industry.

The goal of this study is to determine the proper selection of the perovskite-based solar cell's ohmic electrode material (Au (Gold), Ag (Silver), Al (Aluminum), Cu (Copper), Cr (Chromium), Pt (Platinum), and Cu-graphite alloy), and the electron transport layer (TiO2, ZnO) while keeping the type of perovskite material the same. Photovoltaic devices are then fabricated using the chosen materials. The SCAPS 1-D simulation technology is used to study the thickness used in the methylammonium cations, a usual photovoltaic layer that may separate into a metastable plane of methyl iodide or iodomethane- lead ion (CH3l-Pb2) defects and trapped ammonia (NH3). Other metastable designs of the organic parts in (CH3NH3) PbI3-xClx are also included in the study. A fresh perspective in the comprehension of the auxiliary degradation, ionic transport, and charge trapping components in these materials are also studied. Additionally, the study considers the dynamics involved in the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method, referred to as the MBMT-MAPLE/PLD technique for deposition. A variant of the MAPLE/PLD technique known as the concurrent multi-beam multi-target PLD forms a part of this work.

Each device is investigated through simulations using SCAPS ID and MATLAB software to determine the effects that the electrode and the electron transport layer (ETL) layer materials have on the efficiency of the device. Efficiencies of 27.2%, 26.47%, 18.86%, 25.61%, 22.73%, 27.2%, and 27.2% were obtained from the electrode materials Au (Gold), Ag (Silver), Al (Aluminum), Cu (Copper), Cr (Chromium), Pt (Platinum), and Cu-graphite alloy, respectively. The simulation results compared satisfactorily with fabricated devices results and other literature results which indicates that the simulation program is very accurate in predicting the device output parameters for other contact materials. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that as the work functions increased of the selected ohmic contacts, it will increase the solar cell output electrical parameters such as increased voltage and current and, thus, the efficiency and the filling factor (FF) of the devices.

Committee Chair/Advisor

Warsame H. Ali

Publisher

Prairie View A&M University

Rights

© 2021 Prairie View A & M University

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Date of Digitization

4-13-2022

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Download

Share

COinS