Towards Sustainable Perovskite Solar Cells: Lead-Free High Efficiency Designs with Tin and Germanium

This study focuses on the development of efficient and environmentally friendly Lead-free Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) using Tin and Germanium as absorber materials. The study was performed using SCAPS-1D simulations (version 3.11) to explore the performance of PSCs. The investigation took into consideration optimizing the electron transport layer's (ETL) material and thickness, and TiO2, ZnO, and WO3 were investigated for this purpose. The current results show that Sn-based PSCs achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency of 23.19% with TiO2 as the ETL, while Ge-based PSCs reached a power conversion efficiency of 14.83%. Additionally, the ETL doping concentration optimization revealed that the doping concentration had little impact on the device performance. These results emphasize the potential of Sn- and Ge-based PSCs as sustainable alternatives to Lead-based technologies, offering a pathway toward safer and more efficient solar energy solutions.