Citation: Bist, A.; Pant, B.; Ojha, G.P.;
Acharya, J.; Park, M.; Saud, P.S.
Novel Materials in Perovskite Solar
Cells: Efficiency, Stability, and Future
Perspectives. Nanomaterials 2023, 13,
1724. https://doi.org/10.3390/
nano13111724
Academic Editors: Wolfgang Heiss
and Elias Stathatos
Received: 29 March 2023
Revised: 16 May 2023
Accepted: 17 May 2023
Published: 24 May 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
nanomaterials
Review
Novel Materials in Perovskite Solar Cells: Efficiency, Stability,
and Future Perspectives
Anup Bist
1
, Bishweshwar Pant
2,3,4,
* , Gunendra Prasad Ojha
2,3,4
, Jiwan Acharya
2,3,4
, Mira Park
2,3,4,
*
and Prem Singh Saud
1,
*
1
Department of Chemistry, Kailali Multiple Campus, Farwestern University, Mahendranagar 10400, Nepal
2
Carbon Composite Energy Nanomaterials Research Center, Woosuk University, Wanju 55338, Republic of Korea
3
Woosuk Institute of Smart Convergence Life Care (WSCLC), Woosuk University, Wanju 55338, Republic of Korea
4
Department of Automotive Engineering, Woosuk University, Wanju 55338, Republic of Korea
* Correspondence: bisup@woosuk.ac.kr (B.P.); wonderfulmira@woosuk.ac.kr (M.P.); premsingh@fwu.edu.np (P.S.S.)
Abstract: Solar energy is regarded as the finest clean and green energy generation method to replace
fossil fuel-based energy and repair environmental harm. The more expensive manufacturing pro-
cesses and procedures required to extract the silicon utilized in silicon solar cells may limit their
production and general use. To overcome the barriers of silicon, a new energy-harvesting solar
cell called perovskite has been gaining widespread attention around the world. The perovskites
are scalable, flexible, cost-efficient, environmentally benign, and easy to fabricate. Through this
review, readers may obtain an idea about the different generations of solar cells and their comparative
advantages and disadvantages, working mechanisms, energy alignment of the various materials,
and stability achieved by applying variable temperature, passivation, and deposition methods. Fur-
thermore, it also provides information on novel materials such as carbonaceous, polymeric, and
nanomaterials that have been employed in perovskite solar in terms of the different ratios of doping
and composite and their optical, electrical, plasmonic, morphological, and crystallinity properties
in terms of comparative solar parameters. In addition, information on current trends and future
commercialization possibilities of perovskite solar have been briefly discussed based on reported
data by other researchers.
Keywords: perovskite solar cell (PSC); efficiency; stability; TiO
2
NPs
1. Introduction
1.1. Perovskite Solar Cells
Energy demand is rising dramatically every day as the human population increases.
As a result, the most widely used energy sources, such as coal, oil, diesel, and petroleum,
are on the verge of becoming extinct. On the other hand, the emission of pollutants
from the combustion of fossil fuels is the major cause of global warming. Therefore, it
is eagerly required to promote renewable energy. The sources of renewable energy, such
as solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, biomass, and hydrological energy, could replace fossil
fuels to meet the world’s energy needs. Among them, solar energy is the most important
due to its resource-free and zero-pollution. Since the invention of solar energy, silicon-
based solar cells have been the only ones to be commercially successful. Unfortunately, it
suffers from high costs, complex fabrication processes, and toxic byproducts. Therefore,
other solar technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper-Indium gallium
diselenide (CIGS), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), perovskite (PSC), and organic solar
cells, are currently being researched and developed [1]. Among them, using perovskite
semiconductor materials in solar systems has gained considerable focus to tackle the
issues associated with the use of silicon materials in solar cells. Russian mineralogist L.A.
Perovski developed the idea of perovskite [1,2]. This idea has defined the ABX
3
crystal’s
Nanomaterials 2023, 13, 1724. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13111724 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nanomaterials