Improved efficiency in cheap solar cells.

A perovskite solar cell (PSC) is a type of solar cell which includes a perovskite-structured compound, most commonly a hybrid organic-inorganic lead or tin halide-based material, as the light-harvesting active layer. Perovskite materials, such as methylammonium lead halides and all-inorganic cesium lead halide, are cheap to produce and simple to manufacture. Perovskite solar cells have therefore been the fastest-advancing solar technology as of 2016. In a joint effort between Pavia University (Italy) and the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden at Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), researchers developed a novel method to fabricate lead halide perovskite solar cells with record efficiency. Metal halide perovskites have been under intense investigation over the last decade, due to the remarkable rise in their performance in optoelectronic devices such as solar cells or light-emitting diodes. Researchers have developed a novel method to significantly improve the efficiency of inverted architecture solar cells. The method is based on a modification of the interfaces of the perovskite active layer by introducing small amounts of organic halide salts at both the bottom and the top of the perovskite layer. Such organic halide salts, typically used for the formation of two-dimensional perovskites, led to the suppression of microstructural flaws and passivation of the defects of the perovskite layer. Using this approach, the team has achieved a power conversion efficiency of 23.7% - the highest reported to date for an inverted architecture perovskite solar cell.

  Image https://www.tno.nl/en/about-tno/events/2021/perovskite-solar-cells/


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