Citation

Eldjilali, Cheikh Zakaria (2026) Effect of compact TIO2, thickness on air-processed carbon-based Perovskite Solar Cells with optimised absorber layers. Masters thesis, Multimedia University.

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Abstract

Global interest in clean energy has increased significantly in the past decade due to the continuous negative influence of non-renewable energy byproducts on climate change. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have experienced rapid development since 2009, making them a promising candidate to replace dominant solar cell technologies. Nonetheless, a large portion of PSC-related investigations is undertaken in a controlled environment. The commercialization of the PSCs also requires the simplification of the design and the reduction of high-cost processes. Thus, the realisation of ambient air processed PSCs started gaining interest in the research community. Given that the commercialization of PSCs depends on the device fabrication method, compatibility with controlled air conditions and the simplification of the design structure are necessary to ensure cost-effectiveness. The fabrication of carbon-based PSCs in high-humidity ambient air using chloride precursors or preheating methods remains an understudied field. Further exploration is required to optimize the absorber layer with the precise control of parameters such as the active area, heating environment, antisolvent washing time, and 4-Tb additives. Most research on the impact of the compact TiO2 electron transport layer (ETL) in PSCs is limited to conventional architectures processed in controlled, inert environments. Consequently, there is a significant lack of data regarding how variations in the TiO2- c compact layer thickness affect carbon-based PSCs fabricated under ambient air conditions. Therefore, this thesis focuses on fabricating carbon-based PSCs in an ambient air environment, optimizing the absorber layer parameters, and evaluating the impact of the thickness of compact titanium dioxide (TiO2-c) as the chosen ETL under optimized conditions. The active area size, the annealing environment, the antisolvent washing time, and the 4-tert-Butylpyridine (4-tBP) are among the absorber layer parameters that has been investigated. Using a PSC structure compromising of FTO/TiO2-m/CH3NH3PbI3-xClx/Spiro-OMeTAD/Carbon, the active area and the heating environment studies were conducted. PSCs with different active area sizes constituting of 0.4 cm2 , 0.7 cm2 , and 1 cm2 were investigated, where it was found that 0.4 cm2 was the most optimized achieving a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.08 %. The active area study was performed using hotplate annealing for the perovskite material, and a comparison study with oven annealing was performed. Oven annealing improved the PCE of the fabricated device to 1.52%. The antisolvent washing time, the 4-tBP doping and the TiO2-c thickness studies have been done using a PSC structure of FTO/TiO2-c/TiO2-m/MAPbI3/Carbon. It was found that the antisolvent washing time has pronounced on the PSC performance, resulting in a PCE range from 0.95% for the non-washed samples, and a 2.91% for the 4 s antisolvent washing time. An increase in the antisolvent washing to 10 s resulted in an extreme reduction in PSC performance reaching a PCE of 0.07%. Doping the absorber layer with 4-tBP was found to increase the performance of the samples further to 3.24% when optimizing the 4-tBP doping was fixed at 0.2731 M. The TiO2-c layer thickness was varied from 70 nm to 155 nm. It was found that the TiO2-c thickness has a huge effect on PSC performance with the 70 nm achieving the lowest average PCE of 2.05%. While a TiO2-c thickness of 95 nm was found to be the optimized thickness, achieving the highest average PCE of 2.95% and a maximum PCE of 4.5%. The optimal performance observed at a 95 nm thickness likely results from a balanced crystal intensity between the anatase and brookite phases confirmed through the structural analysis. Furthermore, the thickness of the TiO2-c layer directly governs the morphology of the overlying mesoporous TiO2-m layer by promoting larger aggregates, yielding more uniform grains, and minimizing surface roughness.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Additional Information:	Call No.: TK2963.P47 .E43 2026
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Perovskite solar cells
Subjects:	T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering > TK2896-2985 Production of electricity by direct energy conversion
Divisions:	Faculty of Artificial Intelligence & Engineering (FAIE)
Depositing User:	Ms Nurul Iqtiani Ahmad
Date Deposited:	05 Oct 2026 06:25
Last Modified:	05 Oct 2026 06:25
URII:	http://shdl.mmu.edu.my/id/eprint/16880

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