New approach paves the way in which for mass manufacturing of perovskite photo voltaic cells

Jan 31, 2022 (Nanowerk Highlight) A collaborative staff of scientists led by Professor Michael Grätzel at EPFL’s Faculty of Primary Sciences have demonstrated a method for producing perovskite photovoltaic supplies on an industrial scale, which is able to cut back the associated fee and enhance the efficiency of mass-produced perovskite photo voltaic cells. The approach is low-cost, easy, energy-efficient, and may pave the way in which for creating perovskite photo voltaic cells. Perovskite is of curiosity for photo voltaic cells as a result of it absorbs mild very effectively. This enables for the creation of light-weight, versatile photo voltaic cells that may be integrated into a variety of applied sciences, such because the home windows of buildings or autos. Dilution of perovskite precursor inks by a co-solvent, high a part of the panel: schematic illustration of the dilution course of utilizing tetrahydrofuran as a cosolvent. Backside a part of the panel: chemical compounds and their construction employed within the precursor answer. (Picture: Hong Zhang) “What we’ve completed right here is exhibit you can produce perovskite photovoltaics on bigger substrates utilizing spin coating by designing a co-solvent dilution technique,” says Grätzel, who’s the lead co-corresponding writer of a paper (Nature Communications, “A common co-solvent dilution technique permits facile and cost-effective fabrication of perovskite photovoltaics”) on the work and a professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. “The brand new approach additionally considerably reduces waste and, by extension, reduces poisonous byproducts related to manufacturing perovskite photovoltaics.” “Usually, there’s a direct correlation between the thickness of the semiconductor movie and the precursor ink focus. Due to this fact, the high-efficiency perovskite photo voltaic cells require a excessive focus (>1.4 M) of lead elements to acquire thick and high-quality movies. Encouragingly, our co-solvent dilution technique breaks this common rule,” says Hong Zhang, first-author on the paper. “Within the lab, researchers produce perovskite photovoltaic supplies utilizing a method known as spin coating, which creates a skinny movie of perovskite on a substrate – however solely on a small scale,” says Aram Amassian, who’s a professor on the North Carolina State College. “We’re speaking about pattern substrates which can be just one or two centimeters sq.. Nevertheless, folks didn’t suppose it was doable to scale spin-coating up for manufacturing, utilizing substrates which can be tens of centimeters sq.. As an alternative, folks have opted for quite a lot of different strategies. However these different strategies produce perovskite photovoltaics that don’t carry out in addition to the skinny movies made utilizing spin coating and required important analysis and growth.” Traditionally, folks thought spin coating couldn’t be used to provide perovskite photovoltaics on industrial-scale substrates in a material-efficient approach due to the character of each spin coating and perovskites. Spin coating includes inserting a liquid on the floor of a substrate after which spinning the substrate, in order that the liquid materials spreads throughout the floor. Nevertheless, when perovskite is utilized utilizing this system, the solvents that preserve the perovskite in a liquid state don’t evaporate rapidly sufficient. This causes a lot of the perovskite to fly off the perimeters, that means a whole lot of the perovskite materials is wasted. It additionally ends in irregular thickness of the perovskite on the floor, in addition to some areas of the perovskite taking longer than others to dry. All of which is problematic from a producing standpoint. “The fantastic thing about this system is that many industries already use spin coating applied sciences to provide all types of merchandise,” says Aldo Di Carlo, professor on the College of Rome Tor Vergata. “Our work demonstrates that these current applied sciences could possibly be used to create perovskite photo voltaic cells. This might actually speed up the manufacturing and deployment of perovskite photo voltaic panels and cells.” Collaborators on the demonstration mission are already utilizing the brand new approach to provide modules which can be tens of centimeters throughout with glorious uniformity and efficiency. The work was completed with help from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 analysis and innovation program (GRAPHENE Flagship Core 3 grant settlement No. 881603 in addition to Espresso beneath settlement No. 764047), the Swiss Nationwide Science Basis, the Italian Ministry of Financial Improvement, and the U.S. Workplace of Naval Analysis. By Hong Zhang, Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, EPFL