Nano Today
Volume 37, April 2021, 101062
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Review
Photoferroelectric perovskite solar cells: Principles, advances and insights

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nantod.2020.101062Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • The structure and property of ferroelectric perovskite are introduced to provide a knowledge for understanding the PPSCs.

  • Basic aspects of PPSCs are described including the device architecture, working principle and characterization.

  • The recent advances in PPSCs are discussed, focusing on oxide and halide perovskite materials.

  • Some strategies are envisioned for developing efficient PPSCs.

Abstract

Increasing environmental crises caused by exploring and using fossil fuels have compelled human being to develop innovative technologies to utilize renewable and sustainable energy sources. For this purpose, photovoltaic conversion of solar energy into electricity with solar cells is a promising and attracting way in that solar energy is clean and inexhaustible. Nowadays, the bottleneck in the application of solar cells on a large scale to sustainable energy generation still lies in lacking an efficient, stable and low-cost materials system for photon-to-electricity conversion. Perovskite materials are a class of materials widely applied in solar cells. Many evidences showed that the perovskite materials have both ferroelectric and photovoltaic properties, offering a special system called photoferroelectric materials. A built-in electric field established in these materials due to the ferroelectric property is more helpful for the separation of e-h pairs and enhancing the power conversion efficiency during photovoltaic process in solar cells. Here, we review the recent photoferroelectric perovskite solar cells (PPSCs). After giving a brief description of the structure and property of photoferroelectric perovskite materials, the device structures, working principles and characterization of PPSCs are introduced, followed by the state-of-the-art advances and the insights for the PPSCs based on oxide and halide perovskite materials. Finally, the main challenges in developing efficient PPSCs are discussed.

Graphical Abstract

This review mainly reported photoferroelectric materials including oxide and halide perovskites, and their recent advances in solar cells. The device architecture, working principle and characterization are described, and some strategies are envisioned for developing efficient photoferroelectric perovskite solar cells.

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Keywords

Solar cells
Perovskite
Photovoltaic
Ferroelectric
Photoferroelectric

Cited by (0)

Huilin Li is currently an associate Professor in the Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials at Henan University. He received his Ph.D. from University of Science and Technology of China in 2017. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Shenzhen University from 2017 to 2019. He joined the Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials, Henan University in 2019. His current research interests include perovskite materials, low-dimensional ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials, and their application in solar cells and memory devices.

Fumin Li is currently an associate Professor in the Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials at Henan University. He received his Ph.D. from College of Electronic Science and Engineering of Jilin University, China in 2011. He joined Henan University as a postdoctoral fellow in 2012. His research focuses on the application of nanoscale materials for perovskite, polymer and quantum dots solar cells.

Zhitao Shen received his Ph.D. degree from Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015. From 2015–2017, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in National Chiao Tung University. He joined the Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials, Henan University in 2017. His current research interests include energy-related materials simulation and theoretical sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy.

Su-Ting Han is an associate professor at Shenzhen University. She received her M.Sc. degree in Analytical Chemistry from Hong Kong Baptist University and her Ph.D. degree in Physics and Materials Science from City University of Hong Kong. After graduation, she worked at the City University of Hong Kong as a postdoctoral fellow. Her research interests include functional electronic devices and flexible, stretchable, and wearable electronics.

Junwei Chen received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Physics and Chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China in 2018. He is now a postdoc research fellow in the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His current research activities focus on the synthesis of semiconductor nanostructures, the solar cells based on solution-processed inorganic heterojunctions and perovskite films.

Chao Dong received his M.S. degree from Anhui Normal University in 2014 and Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Science and Technology of China in 2018. He is now a postdoc research fellow in the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His current research activities focus on the thin film solar cells based on multinary metal chalcogenides and perovskites.

Chong Chen is now a distinguished professor of Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials, Henan University. He received Ph.D. from Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2009. Subsequently he moved to Korea Advanced institute of Science and technology (KAIST, South Korea) and South Dakota State University (SDSU, USA), as a postdoctoral fellow in 2010 and 2011, respectively. In 2012, he joined Henan University. He worked at Pittsburgh of University, USA, as a visiting scholar during 2017–2018. He is leading a group that mainly studies perovskite solar cells, quantum dot-sensitized solar cells, and polymer solar cells.

Ye Zhou is an IAS Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University. His research interests include flexible and printed electronics, organic/inorganic semiconductors, surface and interface physics, nanostructured materials, and nano-scale devices for technological applications, such as logic circuits, data storage, photonics and sensors.

Mingtai Wang received Ph.D. degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 1997. After his postdoctoral research at Institute of Solid State Physics (ISSP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), he joined the ISSP as associate professor in 1999. He worked at Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Germany as visiting scientist and Alexander von Humboldt research fellow during 2000–2003. He became a full professor of Materials Physics and Chemistry in Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, CAS under “100-talent Program” in 2004. He is leading a group that mainly studies the materials and device performance in low-cost solar cells.

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ORCID: 0000-0003-2940-2030.

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ORCID: 0000-0002-0273-007X.

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ORCID: 0000-0002-5038-5020.