Browsing by Author "MUHAMMAD SHAH"

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    Fabrication and characterization of flexible al-doped ZnO thin films as an electron transporting material for perovskite solar cell
    (UMT, Lahore, 2022) MUHAMMAD SHAH
    Perovskite - based solar cells are involved in the solar cell manufacturing as they improve power conversion efficiency. The stability and performance of cells are largely dependent on the materials used as electron transportation materials, as well as their morphology. The porosity of an electron transporting layer (anode) is necessary for electron transport efficiency because the porous structure enhances the redox reaction. Different techniques can be employed to increase the porosity of the electron transporting layer. Lignocellulose (LC) fiber is considered as very abundant, eco friendly, lightweight natural fiber and a biocompatible polymer. In this article Lignocellulose (LC) fiber is used as a substrate. As electron transporting materials (ETM) for perovskite solar cells, many types of semiconductor materials can be employed. In this research work, ZnO is used as an (ETM) electron transporting material due to its better electrical properties and wider bandgap. In general, ZnO occurs in two main forms, the cubic, and the hexagonal form, while the hexagonal form is considered to be the most important due to the large bandgap of 3.37 eV, high electron mobility, excellent transparency and direct electron paths, which is very stable for current converting devices. To optimize ZnO thin films and also improve the power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells, Al was added into it as a dopant. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) has a high conductivity compared to pure ZnO since Al acts as a donor in AZO and provides an additional valence electron which is accelerated with low power and converted into a free electron. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used to characterize the synthesized materials, which revealed that the bandgap of AZO is wide and also greater than the bandgap energy of visible light. AZO has excellent transparency in the visible region. AZO has better efficiency as a pure ZnO when used as an electron transporting material (ETM) in the perovskite solar cells (PSC) to suppress the charge recombination.