Optoelectronic analysis of spectrally selective nanophotonic metafilm cell for thermophotovoltaic energy conversion

•A nanophotonic structure is theoretically studied as spectrally selective TPV cell.•A thin MoOx layer is incorporated as a hole transport layer for charge collection.•A high absorption peak is shown above cell bandgap from interference effect.•Sub-bandgap spectral absorptance is calculated to be as low as a few percent.•TPV efficiency is predicted to be 22.8% when paired with a black emitter at 1500 K.