COMSOL Simulation of Heat Distribution in Perovskite Solar Cells: Coupled Optical-Electrical-Thermal 3-D Analysis

The heat dissipation has been rarely investigated in solar cells although it has a significant impact on their performance and reliability. For the first time, an extended three-dimensional (3-D) simulation of heat distribution in perovskite solar cells is presented here. We use COMSOL Multiphysics to investigate the temperature distribution in conventional perovskite solar cells through a coupled optical-electrical-thermal modules. Wave optics module, semiconductor module, and heat transfer in solid module are coupled in COMSOL Multiphysics package to perform the simulation in 3-D wizard. The electrical behavior, optical absorption, and heat conduction or convection are considered to gain insight into heat dissipation across the cell. The simulation results suggest that the heat produced in the cell is best dissipated from the metallic contact where the PbI₂ defect forms because of oxidation or decomposition of the perovskite layer at moisture exposure. The generated heat varies significantly from the front FTO contact to bottom metallic electrode. The more heat dissipation and accumulation is observed at the junction and electrode sides too. In our simulations, we consider the Joule heating, nonradiative recombination heating, and heat flux in every layer of the cell and calculate the carrier's concentration, electric field distribution, Joule heating, Shockley-Read-Hall heating, total heat flux, and temperature distribution across the solar cell structure. The simulations reveal that the metallic contact must be selected as a highly heat conductive material in order to accelerate the heat dissipation on the bottom of the cell and to enhance the cell reliability against temperature increase under normal operation.