7.379 % Power Conversion Efficiency of a Numerically Simulated Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell with Copper (I) Thiocyanate as a Hole Conductor

  • Eli Danladi Department of Physics, Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo, Benue State, Nigeria https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5109-4690
  • Muhammad Kashif School of Electrical Automation and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
  • Thomas Daniel Department of Physics, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike, Ebonyi State, Nigeria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5176-9181
  • Christopher Achem Centre for Satellite Technology Development-NASRDA, Abuja, Nigeria
  • Matthew Alpha Department of Physics, Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno State, Nigeria
  • Michael Gyan Department of Physics, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26565/2312-4334-2022-3-03
Keywords: 1

Abstract

Sourcing for an alternative to the liquid electrolyte in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been the subject of interest in the photovoltaic horizon. Herein, we reported by means of simulation, the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell by replacing the liquid electrolyte with a copper (I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) hole conductor. The study was carried out using Solar Capacitance Simulation Software (SCAPS) which is based on poisson and continuity equations. The simulation was done based on an n-i-p proposed architecture of FTO/TiO2/N719/CuSCN/Pt. The result of the initial device gave a Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE), Fill Factor (FF), Short Circuit Current Density (Jsc) and Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) of 5.71 %, 78.32 %, 6.23 mAcm-2, and 1.17 V. After optimizing input parameters to obtain 1×109 cm-2 for CuSCN/N719 interface defect density, 280 K for temperature, 1.0 μm for N719 dye thickness, 0.4 μm for TiO2 thickness, Pt for metal back contact, and 0.2 μm for CuSCN thickness, the overall device performance of 7.379 % for PCE, 77.983 % for FF, 7.185 mAcm-2 for Jsc and 1.317 V for Voc were obtained. When compared with the initial device, the optimized results showed an enhanced performance of ~ 1.29 times, 1.15 times, and 1.13 times in PCE, Jsc, and Voc over the initial device. The results obtained are encouraging and the findings will serve as a baseline to researchers involved in the fabrication of novel high-performance solid-state DSSCs to realize its appealing nature for industry scalability.

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Published
2022-09-02
Cited
How to Cite
Danladi, E., Kashif, M., Daniel, T., Achem, C., Alpha, M., & Gyan, M. (2022). 7.379 % Power Conversion Efficiency of a Numerically Simulated Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell with Copper (I) Thiocyanate as a Hole Conductor. East European Journal of Physics, (3), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.26565/2312-4334-2022-3-03
Issue
No. 3 (2022): East European Journal of Physics
Section
Original Papers

Copyright (c) 2022 Eli Danladi, Muhammad Kashif, Thomas O. Daniel, Christopher U. Achem, Matthew Alpha, Michael Gyan

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