Optimization of Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells have recently been extensively researched and an impressive increase of the efficiency has been reported in the last decade. However, some drawbacks still need to be overcome: they easily degrade in time, and their stability and reliability need to be significantly improved. In our paper, we analyzed the performance of a perovskite solar cell, based on $MAPbI_{3}$ as active layer, with two alternatives for the electron transport layer (ETL): ZnO and $TiO_{2}$. We investigated the effects on the main performance parameters of the cell due to the variation of the bandgap energy of the perovskite layer, of the thickness and the total defect density, respectively, for the same layer. Finally, we studied the possibility of replacing toxic lead in $MAPbI_{3}$ with tin and obtained a significant improvement of the efficiency of the cell, from 18.69% to 28.87%. Future research is needed to improve the efficiency even further, by choosing suitable parameters and materials, while also increasing the stability and overall properties of the solar cell.