Dopants for Enhanced Performance of Tin-Based Perovskite Solar Cells—A Short Review

Abstract

Lead-based perovskite solar cells had reached a bottleneck and demonstrated significant power conversion efficiency (PCE) growth matching the performance of traditional polycrystalline silicon solar cells. Lead-containing perovskite solar cell technology is on the verge of commercialization and has huge potential to replace silicon solar cells, but despite the very promising future of these perovskite solar cells, the presence of water-soluble toxic lead content is a growing concern in the scientific community and a major bottleneck for their commercialization. The less toxic, tin-based perovskite solar cells are promising alternatives for lead-free perovskite solar cells. Like lead-based perovskite, the general chemical formula composition of tin-based perovskite is ASnX3, where A is a cation and X is an anion (halogen). It is evident that tin-based perovskites, being less-toxic with excellent photoelectric properties, show respectable performance. Recently, numerous studies reported on the fabrication of Sn-based perovskite solar cells. However, the stability of this novel lead-free alternative material remains a big concern. One of the many ways to stabilize these solar cells includes addition of dopants. In this context, this article summarizes the most important fabrication routes employing dopants that have shown excellent stability for tin-based perovskite photovoltaics and elaborates the prospects of lead-free, tin based stable perovskite photovoltaics.