Enhancement of novel NaZnBr3 perovskite for solar cells application

The efficiencies of lead-based inorganic and organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have been approaching 25% in recent years. Their major challenges include instability problems and their possible long term health hazards. In response to this, there has been a growth in research into lead-free inorganic perovskites. This research proposed that structural modifications of perovskite using copper and silver dopants be used as a unique technique for enhancing the efficiency of novel NaZnBr3. The optical, microstructural, electronic, and crystalline characterization was carried out using Ultraviolet–Visible (UV–VIS) spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), SCAPS-1D, and X-ray Diffractometry (XRD) respectively. NaZnBr3 had an efficiency of 0.88% at 100μm, with a band gap of 3.1 eV. This efficiency improves to 9.33% with silver additive with a bandgap of 1.65 eV. Pure NaZnBr3 is found to be a p–n type semiconductor via its flat band potential, while doped NaZnBr3 are shown to be p-type semiconductors. Silver is concluded to be the better dopant, although both dopants increased the efficiency and show higher doping densities and external quantum efficiencies than pure NaZnBr3. It was reported that the crystallographic and microstructural structure of the perovskite plays a significant role in the optimization or modification of the efficiency of the novel NaZnBr3 perovskite. It is recommended that NaZnBr3 be researched further using different synthetic routes and experimental electronic measurement.