New technique boosts efficiency, sustainability of large-scale perovskite solar cells

An international team of researchers has demonstrated a technique for producing perovskite photovoltaic materials on an industrial scale, which will reduce the cost and improve the performance of mass-produced perovskite solar cells.

The technique is easy to use and should lead to the creation of perovskite solar cells. It absorbs light very efficiently and is of interest to solar cells. This allows for the creation of lightweight, flexible solar cells that can be incorporated into a range of technologies, such as the windows of buildings or vehicles.

In the lab, researchers produce perovskite photovoltaic materials using a technique called spin coating, which creates a thin film of perovskite on a substrate, but only on a small scale.

sample substrates are only one or two square centimeters. People didn't think it was possible to scale spin- coating up for manufacturing, using substrates that are tens of centimeters square. A variety of other methods have been used by people. The thin films made using spin coating are more efficient than the other methods, but they require a lot of research and development.

Michael GrxE4;tzel, co-corresponding author of the paper, says that the paper shows that you can produce perovskite photovoltaics on larger substrates using spin coating.

The nature of both spin coating and perovskites made people think that spin coating couldn't be used to produce photovoltaics on industrial-scale substrates.

Spin coating involves placing a liquid on the surface of a substrate and then spinning it to spread the liquid across the surface. The solvent that keeps the perovskite in a liquid state doesn't evaporate quickly enough when applied using this technique. A lot of the material is wasted because it flies off the edges. It results in irregular thickness of the perovskite on the surface, as well as some areas taking longer than others to dry. It's problematic from a manufacturing standpoint.

Hong Zhang of cole Polytechnique says that their approach tackles this challenge by introducing a co-solvent that allows the liquid to spread evenly and dry very quickly and uniformly.

The new technique reduces waste and toxic waste.

Many industries already use spin coating technologies to produce all sorts of products, says Aldo Di Carlo, co-corresponding author of the paper and a professor at the University of Rome. This could really accelerate the production and deployment of solar panels.

The new technique is being used to produce modules that are tens of centimeters across with excellent uniformity and performance.

Amassian says that his team is now focused on using process automation and artificial intelligence to build on this work and further improve efficiency, stability andsustainability.

A Universal Co-Solvent Dilution Strategy is a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

More information: Hong Zhang et al, A universal co-solvent dilution strategy enables facile and cost-effective fabrication of perovskite photovoltaics, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27740-4 Journal information: Nature Communications Citation: New technique boosts efficiency, sustainability of large-scale perovskite solar cells (2022, January 25) retrieved 26 January 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-01-technique-boosts-efficiency-sustainability-large-scale.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.