Development of CeMnO2 and CeMnO2 buffer layer nanomaterials for CIGSSe/perovskite double-graded solar cells

Solar cells are a popular sustainable power source, but their electrical characteristics deteriorate over time due to a lack of UV light absorbent and wide energy bandgap buffer layer materials. Photon collecting in the UV wavelength band remains a difficult problem for making high-performance CIGSSe solar cells. Recently, several researchers have used CdS, Zn (O, S), ZnMnO, and ZnMgO buffer layer materials for making a CIGSSe solar cell. However, these buffer layers have various drawbacks, including a smaller energy bandgap, lower UV light ab-sorption, and heavy metal toxicity. To solve the above problems, we used CeMnO2 buffer-1 and CeMgO2 buffer-2 as hole-reflected layer nanomaterials to create a high-efficiency CIGSSe/perovskite double-graded photovoltaic cell. The materials have a wide energy bandgap, high UV light absorption, and are toxic-free. First, we syn-thesized and characterized the CeMnO2 and CeMgO2 buffer layer materials; later, we used the extracted optical and electrical properties of both buffer layer nanomaterials to model a proposed high-efficiency solar cell numerically. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) instruments have been used to confirm the average crystallite size, hexagonal cubic fluorite-like structure, surface characteristics, average particle size, and CeMnO2 and CeMgO2 nanomaterial morphology. The optical and electrical properties of both buffer layer materials are determined using ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry and Hall Effect measurements. The study proposes a high-efficiency (SLG/Al/ZnMgO:Al/CeMnO2/CeMgO2/CIGSSe/MAFPbBrI/ Mo) inorganic and organic solar cell using experimental data of CeMnO2 and CeMgO2 buffer layer nanomaterials. The bandgap energy increases from 3.68 to 3.86 eV for the CeMnO2 buffer-1 layer and from 3.578 to 3.865 eV for the CeMgO2 buffer-2 layer, and the device enhances photovoltaic characteristics, with an efficiency of 29.68 %, JSC of 39.37 mA/cm2, VOC of 873.9 mV, and FF of 86.28.