Growth and Exploration of Inorganic Semiconductor Electron and Hole Transport Layers for Low-Cost Perovskite Solar Cells

The perovskite exhibited outstanding performance and was a promising alternative material for a low-cost, high power conversion efficiency (PCE) solar cell application. To avoid the high-cost organic materials as electron transport layers (ETL) and hole transport layers (HTL) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), here introduce the inorganic semiconductor nanomaterials ZnS and CuS work as an ETL and HTL, respectively. In this work, we selected chalcogenides such as zinc sulfide (ZnS) and copper sulfide (CuS) as the 2-electron and hole transport layers and utilized them for perovskite solar cell application. For the proposed cell structure FTO/ZnS/perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3)/CuS/Ag, the deposition of layers has been achieved via different techniques such as thermal evaporation, spin coating and doctor blade, respectively. X-ray diffraction and Field effect scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) with Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to characterize the structural and morphological properties of the prepared samples. UV-Visible spectrophotometer and current density-voltage curve were used to measure the optical and electrical parameters of the deposited layers, respectively. From the J-V characteristics, for the proposed and fabricated PSCs, the estimated PCE is about 0.28 %, open-circuit voltage (VOC) = 0.29 V, and short-circuit current density (JSC) = 3.96 mA/cm2. The results are good and the inorganic nanomaterial layers used in this study are promising for future studies. HIGHLIGHTS In this study, chalcogenide materials such as zinc sulphide (ZnS) as the electron transport layer and cadmium sulfide (CdS) as the hole transport layer in solar perovskite cell applications were investigated Use easy and simple deposit methods such as chemical bath deposition and doctor blade method The possibility of using chalcogenide materials in the field of perovskite solar cells, although the efficiency of the obtained cell is very small, is an indication of the response of such materials in the application of perovskite solar cells GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT