Polymer p-doping improves perovskite solar cell stability

• Perovskite solar cells have drawn a significant amount of study attention as a promising option to conventional silicon-based solar cells, as a result of their effectiveness in converting sunlight right into electrical power. Perovskite solar cells are a hybrid of organic as well as not natural materials and also contain a light-harvesting layer as well as a charge-transporting layer.

Nonetheless, stability issues have hindered the commercialization and also prevalent use of PSCs, and also accomplishing functional stability has become a rallying cry among researchers in the field. Now, researchers led by Michael Grätzel at EPFL as well as Xiong Li at the Michael Grätzel Center for Mesoscopic Solar Cells in Wuhan (China) have established a technique that resolves stability problems and also increases the effectiveness of PSCs.

The scientists presented a phosphonic acid-functionalized fullerene derivative into the charge-transporting layer of the PSC as a "grain limit modulator," which assists strengthen the perovskite crystal framework as well as boosts the PSC's resistance to environmental stressors like heat as well as moisture.

The team likewise created a redox-active radical polymer called poly(oxoammonium salt) that successfully "p-dopes" the hole-transporting material-- a critical component of the PSCs. The polymer, functioning as a "p-dopant," improves the conductivity and also stability of the hole-transporting material, a crucial component of the cells.

The process of "p-doping" involves introducing mobile cost electronic cost service providers right into the material to improve its conductivity and stability, as well as in this case alleviated the diffusion of lithium ions, a significant issue that adds to the functional instability of PSCs.

With the new technique, the scientists accomplished power conversion effectiveness of 23.5% for little PSCs and 21.4% for larger "minimodules." These effectiveness are comparable to standard solar cells, with the added advantage of an improved stability for PSCs. The solar cells kept 95.5% of their initial performance after greater than 3200 hrs of constant exposure to simulated sunlight preserving the temperature level at 75 ° C over the entire period, a significant improvement over previous PSC designs.

The new approach can revolutionize the use of PSCs, making them obtainable for use on a bigger scale. The researchers think that their technique could be conveniently scaled up for commercial manufacturing as well as might potentially be used to create stable, high-efficiency PSC modules.

The findings are released in the journal Science.