One-step solution-coating method to advance perovskite solar cell production as well as commercialization

• Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are taken into consideration an appealing candidate for next-generation photovoltaic innovation with high effectiveness and low manufacturing cost, potentially changing the renewable energy industry. However, the existing layer-by-layer production process presents challenges that have actually hindered the commercialization of this technology.

Lately, scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and also the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the united state collectively established an innovative one-step solution-coating approach that simplifies the production process as well as lowers the commercialization obstacles for PSCs. The findings were published in the clinical journal Nature Energy under the title "Co-deposition of hole-selective contact as well as absorber for improving the processability of perovskite solar cells."

"Minimizing the variety of device-processing steps without sacrificing device efficiency will help reduce the process intricacy as well as production price, which will enhance the manufacturability of PSCs," explained Dr. Zhu Zonglong, a co-leader of the research study as well as an assistant teacher in the Department of Chemistry at CityU.

"We attended to the production issue with a novel strategy to co-process the hole-selective contact as well as perovskite layer in a single step, leading to cutting edge performance of 24.5% and phenomenal security for upside down perovskite solar cells. This helps bring the commercialization of the technology one step better," he stated.

Generally, PSCs are fabricated utilizing a layer-by-layer process, which involves sequentially transferring different layers of the solar cell on top of each other. While this technique has actually been successful in generating high-performance perovskite solar cells, it causes issues that may hinder their commercialization, such as increased manufacture cost, disappointing uniformity as well as reproducibility.

To improve the manufacturability of PSCs, Dr. Zhu teamed up with Dr. Joseph M. Luther, from NREL, to collectively design a new strategy for fabricating efficient upside down perovskite solar cells in which the hole-selective contact and perovskite light absorber can spontaneously form in a single solution-coating procedure.

They located that if particular phosphonic or carboxylic acids are contributed to perovskite precursor options, the service will certainly self-assemble on the indium tin oxide substrate throughout perovskite film handling. They create a robust self-assembled monolayer as an excellent hole-selective contact while the perovskite takes shape. This single solution-coating treatment not only solves wettability issues, but likewise streamlines device construction by developing both the hole-selective contact as well as the perovskite light absorber simultaneously, as opposed to the typical layer-by-layer process.

The recently produced PSC gadget has a power conversion effectiveness of 24.5% and also can preserve greater than 90% of its initial efficiency even after 1,200 hrs of running at the optimal power factor under continuous illumination. Its effectiveness approaches that of similar PSCs on the market.

The collective team additionally showed that the new technique is compatible with various self-assembled monolayer molecular systems, perovskite structures, solvents and scalable handling methods, such as spin-coating as well as blade-coating techniques. And the PSC fabricated with the new method have comparable performance with those generated from various other methods.

"By introducing this ingenious method, we wish to contribute to the perovskite study community by suggesting a much more simple method for making high-performance perovskite solar cells as well as possibly accelerating the process of bring them to market," claimed Dr. Zhu.

The research team plans to better explore the partnership in between self-assembled monolayer molecule structures and also perovskite precursors to determine an ideal team of self-assembled monolayer molecules for this technique, thereby enhancing the general efficiency of the PSCs.