A Brief on Emerging Materials and Its Photovoltaic Application

In this chapter, an overview of different novel materials used in solar cell is presented. The inside physics and most common materials used in a variety of solar cells are described. Material is the heart of a solar cell device and selection and development of proper material are a crucial task for device development. Amongst different type hybrid, perovskite and organic solar cells are cheap and provide comparable power conversion efficiency to the conventional silicon based solar cell. Superior element for a hybrid solar cell is PEDOT:PSS blend and Si heterojunction. Different additives to improve the efficiency in such solar cell are discussed. Moreover, different organo-metallic perovskite materials with ferroelectric characteristics are discussed in this chapter. The ferroelectricity uplifts the open circuit voltage of the solar cell beyond its energy band gap. The analytical description of device performance in such under different charge carrier transport materials are presented as well. Both organic and inorganic materials are suitable for electron and hole transporting layer. The perovskite materials are leading its way to lower dimensional versions which are suitable for both solar cell and other optoelectronic devices. The stability of lower dimensional perovskite leads to Dion-Jacobson (DJ) and Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) phases and are discussed in this chapter. Moreover, working physics and materials used in organic solar cell are also a part of this chapter.