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The molecular design and conformations of hole-transporting materials (HTM) have unravelled a strategy to enhance the performance of environmentally sustainable perovskite solar cells (PSC). Several attempts have been made and several are underway for improving the efficiency of PSCs by designing an efficient HTM, which is crucial to preventing corrosion, facilitating effective hole transportation, and preventing charge recombination. There is a need for a potential alternative to the current market-dominating HTM due to its high cost of production, dopant requirements, moisture sensitivity, and low stability. Among several proposed HTMs, molecules derived from thiophene exhibit unique behaviour, such as the interaction with under-coordinated Pb2+, thereby facilitating the passivation of surface defects in the perovskite layer. In addition, coupling a suitable side chain imparts a hydrophobic character, eventually leading to the development of a moisture-sensitive and highly stable PSC. Furthermore, thiophene-backboned polymers with ionic pendants have been employed as an interfacial layer between PSC layers, with the backbone facilitating efficient charge transfer. This perspective article comprehensively presents the design strategy, characterization, and function of HTMs associated with thiophene-derived molecules. Hence, it is observed that thiophene-formulated HTMs have an enhanced passivation effect, good performance in an open-circuit environment, longevity, humidity resistance, thermostability, good hole extraction, and mobility in a dopant-free condition. For a better understanding, the article provides a comparative description of the activity and function of thiophene-based small molecules and polymers and their effect on device performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lead-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have drawn much research attention over the years due to their impressive light-to-power conversion efficiency (PCE), low temperature with easy manufacturing, tolerance to defects, high absorption coefficient and low cost. In this paper, the effect of absorber thickness, absorber band gap, absorber doping concentration, and electron transport material (ETM) thickness of PSC with two inorganic hole transport materials (HTM) was investigated using one-dimensional solar capacitance simulation (SCAPS-1D) software. Results obtained indicates that solar cell containing CuI as HTM performed better than that with NiO. A power conversion efficiency of 16.65%, fill factor (FF) of 82.43%, current density (Jsc) of 24.83 mA/cm2 and voltage (Voc) of 0.83 V were obtained for CuI with an enhancement of 1.15 times in PCE, 1.10 in Jsc and 1.17 in FF over the initial device and PCE of 15.74%, FF of 74.69 %, Jsc of 27.22 mA/cm2 and Voc of 0.77 V for NiO with an enhancement of 1.20 times in PCE, 1.25 times in Jsc and 1.15 in FF when compared with the initial device. The result therefore, shows that CuI as HTM performed better than NiO and implies that critical selection of the absorber parameters is a very key factor to enhance solar cell devices.

In just a few years, the efficiency of perovskite-based solar cells (PSCs) has risen to 25.8%, making them competitive with current commercial technology. Due to the inherent advantage of perovskite thin films that can be fabricated using simple solution techniques at low temperatures, PSCs are regarded as one of the most important low-cost and mass-production prospects. The lack of stability, on the other hand, is one of the major barriers to PSC commercialization. The goal of this review is to highlight the most important aspects of recent improvements in PSCs, such as structural modification and fabrication procedures, which have resulted in increased device stability. The role of different types of hole transport layers (HTL) and the evolution of inorganic HTL including their fabrication techniques have been reviewed in detail in this review. We eloquently emphasized the variables that are critical for the successful commercialization of perovskite devices in the final section. To enhance perovskite solar cell commercialization, we also aimed to obtain insight into the operational stability of PSCs, as well as practical information on how to increase their stability through rational materials and device fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Perovskite solar cells have become an attractive subject in the solar energydevice area. During ten years of development, the energy conversion efficiency has beenimproved from 2.2% to more than 22%, and it still has a very good potential for furtherenhancement. In this paper, a numerical model of the perovskite solar cell with thestructure of glass/ FTO/ TiO2/ H3NH3PbI3/ HTM/Au by using Silvaco Atlas software ispresented. The effect of hole transport material characteristics, including hole mobilityand band gap offset of organic and inorganic HTM layers such as Spiro-MOeTAD, CuOand Cu2O on the performance of PSCs are investigated. The simulation results reveal thatwith increase of hole mobility in hole transport layer, the cell efficiency is increases.Meanwhile, the solar cell exhibits a better performance by using inorganic materials likeCuO and Cu2O as hole transport layer, than by using Spiro-MOeTAD, particularly theefficiency reaches 22.12% when Cu2O is used.

In just a few years, the efficiency of perovskite-based solar cells (PSCs) has risen to 25.8%, making them competitive with current commercial technology. Due to the inherent advantage of perovskite thin films that can be fabricated using simple solution techniques at low temperatures, PSCs are regarded as one of the most important low-cost and mass-production prospects. The lack of stability, on the other hand, is one of the major barriers to PSC commercialization. The goal of this review is to highlight the most important aspects of recent improvements in PSCs, such as structural modification and fabrication procedures, which have resulted in increased device stability. The role of different types of hole transport layers (HTL) and the evolution of inorganic HTL including their fabrication techniques have been reviewed in detail in this review. We eloquently emphasized the variables that are critical for the successful commercialization of perovskite devices in the final section. To enhance perovskite solar cell commercialization, we also aimed to obtain insight into the operational stability of PSCs, as well as practical information on how to increase their stability through rational materials and device fabrication.

The strategy of ion doping in metal oxide is generally used to enhance the photoanode film feature, attain a suitable energy band and enhance carrier mobility. Here, a rare earth element erbium was doped into TiO 2 electron transport layer (ETL) by adding erbium trinitrate into the titanium precursor solution. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to fabricate perovskite sensitized erbium doped TiO 2 nanoparticle (Er3+@TNPs) photoanode solar cell with different hole transport materials (HTMs) and graphite coated counter electrode. The perovskite sensitized solar cell (PSSC) built with CH 3 NH 3 SnI 3 sensitized Er3+@TNPs photoanode and spiro-MeOTAD HTM shows an impressive photovoltaic performance had the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11.54% when compared to the undoped TiO 2 photoanode PSSC. The results of this investigation indicate that the rare earth ion doping could be a promising method for producing effective ETL and enhanced performance PSSCs. • This work is mainly focused to increase the power conversion efficiency of photovoltaic devices using efficient photoanode structure, competence perovskite material with spiro-MeOTAD hole transport material. • The results showed in the present investigation, the device structure and the materials used in this study, significantly satisfied our focus of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Overview of CzDMPA based hole transporting materials (HTMs) for perovskite solar cells (PCSs) is discussed. • Classification of DMPA-containing carbazole based HTMs is given. • Research trends in synthetic pathways and structure-property relationship are reviewed. • Photovoltaic performance and stability in PCSs are summarized. Perovskite solar cells (PSC) based on metal-organic halide perovskites have emerged as one of the most promising photovoltaic technologies. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) has increased remarkably over the last few years from less than 10% up to certified efficiencies exceeding 23%. Selective interfacial layers play a critical role in charge extraction processes. In order to obtain high efficiencies, a hole transporting material (HTM) is required. Huge research efforts have been made to design efficient and low-cost materials. Carbazole-based HTMs are among the most promising new HTMs, in particular when they are substituted with dimethoxydiphenylamine (DMPA) units. This review gives an overview of the different classes of DMPA-containing carbazole-based HTMs and highlights the synthetic pathways, the structure-property relationship and the photovoltaic performances obtained in PSC devices. The relevance of structural variations and chemical doping processes is discussed with regard to efficiency and stability issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, easy and simple structured perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are designed and characterized. Our effort was to reduce the cost of the fabrication of such PSC devices, first by using an inexpensive starting precursor (aqueous methylamine solution) for the perovskite materials and second by design in a PSC structure free of the expensive hole transport layer (HTL). The CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite sols were deposited onto a conductive FTO glass using the spin coating technique followed by heating at 100 °C for 10 min. The structure of the films was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and their optical properties by UV–VIS spectrophotometry and photoluminescence (PL). The obtained phase confirmed the formation of a tetragonal perovskite structure. Two different solvents have been used, dimethylformamide (DMF) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The effect of the type and the concentration of the used solvent DMF and DMSO on the performance of the solar cells have been investigated. It was found that a 40% concentration of the perovskite material resulted in the optimum film thickness that gives the best photoelectric performance. The DMF-based PSC assembled solar cell exhibited the best performance with an open circuit voltage of 750 mV, a photocurrent density of 12.5 mA/cm2, and an overall photon to electric conversion efficiency of 5.7%; all these results are higher than those of cells made with DMSO. Highlights: Easy and simple structured perovskite solar cells free of the hole transport layer were designed for efficient low-cost organolead halide perovskites solar cells by using inexpensive precursors. The influence of the concentration and the type of the solvent of the obtained perovskite materials on the performance of the solar cell have been investigated. For both the used solvents (DMF and DMSO), it was found that a 40% concentration is the optimum to obtain better performance for the DMF-based PSC. An open circuit voltage of 750 mV, a photocurrent density of 12.5 mA/cm2 with an overall photon to electric conversion efficiency of 5.7% was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]