Lifetime Improvement of Perovskite Solar Cell, Using a Photoactive Phase Change Material

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

 Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs) are the brilliant stars of the new generation photovoltaic 
technologies due to their superior features of perovskite material and high Power Conversion Efficiency 
(PCE) that has reached up to 25.5%. Their stability is the main challenge that should be addressed for 
the commercialization of PSCs. The perovskite structure is decomposed to its precursor in the face of 
continuous light irradiation (mainly UV light), humidity, and heat. In this paper, mesoporous PSCs with 
structure of FTO (400 nm)/Compact TiO2 (30 nm)/Mesoporous-TiO2 (330 nm)/CH3NH3PbI3 (270 
nm)/ P3HT (30 nm)/Au (100 nm) are fabricated in an uncontrolled environment. The UV light stability 
of the PSC is enhanced by adding a photoactive Phase Change Material (PCM) into the perovskite. The 
PCM undergoes trans-to-cis isomerization under UV light irradiation. Afterwards, the cis form absorbs 
the heat produced in the solar cell and converts it into its trans isomer in a reversible process. By this 
approach, the destructive effect of UV light and heat is prohibited, leading to the enhancement of PSC 
durability by almost 2.4 times compared to devices without PCM. Indeed, the PCE of the device with 
AzB reaches 67% of the initial PCE upon 120 min of light soaking under AM 1.5, while the device 
without AzB only keeps 28% of its initial PCE under the same condition. It should be noted that there is 
no significant difference in the PCE of both solar cells.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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AUT Journal of Electrical Engineering
Volume 54, Issue 2
December 2022
Pages 165-172

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