Boosting Light Harvesting in Perovskite Solar Cells by Biomimetic Inverted Hemispherical Architectured Polymer Layer with High Haze Factor as an Antireflective Layer

Biomimetic microarchitectured polymer layers, such as inverted hemispherical architectured (IHSA)-poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and hemispherical architectured (HSA)-PDMS layers, were prepared by a simple and cost-effective soft-imprinting lithography method via a hexagonal dose-packed polystyrene microsphere array/silicon mold. The IHSA-PDMS/glass possessed superior antireflection (AR) characteristics with the highest/lowest average transmittance/reflectance (T-avg/R-avg) values of approximately 89.2%/6.4% compared to the HSA-PDMS/glass, flat-PDMS/glass, and bare glass (T-avg/R-avg similar to 88.8%/7.5%, 87.5%/7.9%, and 87.3%/8.8%, respectively). In addition, the IHSA-PDMS/glass also exhibited a relatively strong light-scattering property with the higher average haze ratio (H-avg) of similar to 38% than those of the bare glass, flat-PDMS/glass, and HSA-PDMS/glass (i.e., H-avg approximate to 1.1, 1.7, and 34.2%, respectively). At last, to demonstrate the practical feasibility under light control of the solar cells, the IHSA-PDMS was laminated onto the glass substrates of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) as an AR layer, and their device performances were explored. Consequently, the short-circuit current density of the PSCs integrated with the IHSA-PDMS AR layer was improved by similar to 17% when compared with the device without AR layer, resulting in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 19%. Therefore, the IHSA-PDMS is expected to be applied as an AR layer for solar cells to enhance their light absorption as well as the PCE.