Advancing Perovskite Solar Cells with 2D MXene Nanocomposites for Enhanced Efficiency and Stability

• Grant number: 24/13743-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Support Program for Fixating Young Doctors
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Agreement: CNPq
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Frederico de Oliveira Graeff
• Grantee: Hameed Ullah
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências (FC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 24/02264-0 - Advancing Perovskite Solar Cells with 2D MXene Nanocomposites for Enhanced Efficiency and Stability, AP.R

Abstract

Developing new energy sources is one of the most urgent issues for the whole world, as fossil fuels will be exhausted shortly. Solar energy is a clean, free of cost, sustainable and abundant energy source, harvesting just a small fraction of available solar energy would be enough to satisfy the world's entire energy demand. Impressively, low-cost solution-processed lead halide perovskites due to its superior optical characteristics have shown great success in photovoltaic applications during the past few years with high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of over 25%, which turns it as a potential candidate to compete with the dominating high production cost silicon (Si) photovoltaic technology. Despite this rapid development, the key barrier to the commercialization of conventional modules based on perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is the poor thermal and moisture stability of organic-inorganic halide perovskites and organic transporting layers (TLs). Behind the stability and reproducibility challenges, interfacial defects, bulk defects, and misalignment of band edges between perovskite and charge transport layers are particularly notable. The two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXene) are a new class of 2D materials that have been applied to circumvent these PSCs limitations. MXene has numerous advantages, such as high optical transmittance, excellent metallic conductivity, tunable work function, and exceptional stability. These qualities render MXene well-suited for integration into PSCs manufacture. In this project, different MXene (Ti3CTx, Nb2CTx and V2CTx) will be synthesized and employed to modify the structural, chemical, and electronic properties of PSCs. Conducting conjugated polymer PEDOT:PSS will be used as a hole transport layer (HTL). The theoretical study will be engaged by using Quantum Espresso code based on density functional theory (DFT). This project exhibits a strong potential to produce stable MXene-based PSCs with enhanced efficiency towards patents and functional devices in the field of solar energy harvesting, which is very strategic for the economy of Brazil.