Lead-free Organic-Inorganic Halide Perovskites for Solid State Solar Cell Application

Organic-inorganic halide perovskites have been recently classified as a new type absorber for solid state solar cell applications. A very surprising and tantalizing performance has been revealed very recently with the achievement of a series of milestones including an efficiency of 20.3% that have quickly placed this material in a leading position amongst the emerging generations of photovoltaic devices. These perovskites possess several benefits that include ease of fabrication, strong solar absorption and low non-radiative carrier recombination. A reasonably high carrier mobility is another important property for solid state solar cell applications. The mechanism so far is explained in terms of electrons scaffolding rather than holes collection usually considered in solid state solar cells. Currently, all highly performing organic-inorganic halide perovskites consist of lead as a major constituent and thus it raises toxicity issues during device fabrication, deployment and disposal. Some of the countries have banned lead already as a toxic hazard. Here in this project lead-free organic-inorganic halide perovskites will be synthesized followed by standard structural, optical and opto-electrical characterizations. A simple wet chemistry will be adopted to substitute lead with tin (Sn) and copper (Cu). In synthesis, organic (e.g., methylammonium or/and ethylammonium) halides will be prepared first and thereafter will be reacted with lead-free inorganic halides to form organic-inorganic halide i.e. lead-free perovskites. Since the crystalline structure as well as macroscopic gain sizes affect a lot in their contribution in solar cell performance, the as-synthesized perovskites will go through structural characterizations followed by optical and opto-electrical measurements. Organic-inorganic halide perovskites possess a lot of lacking in understanding and mechanism in connection with solar cell applications. This is why, a numerical study will be carried out to have a pre-assessment on molecular orientation disorder in as-synthesized organic-inorganic halide perovskites along with their energy states using DFT (Density functional theory) calculation. In final step, a simple planar thin film solar cell configuration will be employed to design prototype using as-synthesized and as-characterized lead-free organic-inorganic halide perovskites. Organic-inorganic halide perovskite is very promising and fast growing emerging field of research in solar light harvesting technologies. It is imperative to take action immediately to play role and contribute to this advancement. The project will initiate a wider awareness in this field of research. Students are supposed to be familiar with the technology and thus, KFUPM as well as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be able to have potential human resources to face the challenges of next generation of solar cell technologies.