New material proposed for perovskite solar cells

• A new type of product for solar cells was proposed by specialists of the Ural Federal University (UrFU) as well as the Institute of Organic Synthesis of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with their associates. The compounds found will considerably decrease the cost of solar cell production. The article was released in the New Journal of Chemistry.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are an encouraging alternative to the familiar silicon cells, supplying the same amount of energy with 180 times less material thickness. Their manufacturing technology is much simpler as well as cheaper than that of silicon cells. The problem with PSCs is its lack of stability. One of one of the most reliable services today, the professionals discussed, is the option of new products that make sure the transport of fee carriers after it is obtained in the perovskite layer itself.

Scientists from the UrFU as well as the UB RAS have proposed a new sort of product for transporting electrons in PSCs, which has a variety of advantages. According to the authors, with the new material they were able to achieve solar power conversion performance of 12%, which is equivalent with the average performance of market equivalents.

"The family of molecules we found carries electrons in PSCs slightly even worse than the fullerenes utilized today, but they have to do with twice as affordable, much easier to generate, and also have a variety of various other technical advantages," claims Gennady Rusinov, associate professor at the Department of Organic Synthesis Technology of UrFU.

Although fullerenes, according to scientists, are the most desired electron-transport product for PSCs, they have issues with morphological stability as well as reduced light absorption, in addition to excellent trouble in modifying digital properties. The costs of synthesis as well as purification of fullerenes in some cases make their application economically inefficient.

"Our molecules are lacking the primary disadvantages of fullerenes, and their synthesis is extremely basic, even in big quantities. The optical, electrochemical and digital residential properties of our molecules are conveniently modified. In addition, they are dipoles, which opens a variety of possibilities for enhancing PSCs," stated Gennady Rusinov.

Researchers from the Ural Federal University and also the Institute of Cosmophysical Research of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences proposed a complete synthesis technique for the new molecules as well as likewise studied their thermal stability, electronic and also optical residential properties.