Effect of pH on the physical properties of grown nickel oxide by SILAR experimental technique and numerical investigation as the hole transport layer for high energy conversion perovskite solar cell

Abstract

Nickel oxide thin films have been prepared using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method on soda lime glass substrate. In this work, we report the synthesis and the influence of the number of cycles (N = 20, 60 and 80 cycles) and pH = 12, pH = 14 on structural, morphological, and optical properties of the synthesised NiO thin films onto a glass substrate. The prepared films were characterised by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), UV-Vis NIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive analysis (EDS). The film elaborated at pH = 14 for 60 dipping cycles exhibits good morphology and crystallinity. It has a band gap of 3.44 eV and a transmittance of 86%. Optimisation and simulation from the SCAPS-1D simulator demonstrate that our NiO optimised film can be used as hole transport layer (HTL) for perovskite solar cells to yield a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.11%.