Activated Carbon as the Counter Electrode on Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Perovskite is an active material that can generate electrons when exposed to rays that are currently widely investigated in the development of perovskite solar cells. Perovskite solar cells become the fastest of increasing efficiency compared with other solar cell materials. In the perovskite solar cells development, cost efficiency becomes a challenge for commercialization and mass production. The use of silver (Ag) or gold (Au) as the counter electrode (CE) of perovskite solar cells increases the cost production highly. In addition to very expensive material prices, high-energy consumption is needed to evaporate silver and gold onto the FTO glass which makes the manufacturing process expensive. Carbon material has been a great candidate to replace silver or gold as the CE of perovskite solar cells. The electrical properties of carbon materials closely resemble the electrical properties of gold which makes carbon more advantageous compared with silver or gold. Activated carbon made from burnt coconut shells is one type of carbon using low-cost materials which is easy to get considering that Indonesia has a beach overgrown by palm trees. In this research, we will use activated carbon made from burning coconut shells as the CE of perovskite solar cells. The data shows a comparison between pure activated carbon and activated carbon mixed with paraffin oil. The result concludes that activated carbon mixed with paraffin oil shows the best performance with VOC of 0.7 V, of 2.25 mA, and FF of 0.371.