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

Date:
January 25, 2022
Source:
North Carolina State University
Summary:
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.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
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 low-cost, simple, energy-efficient, and should pave
the way for creating perovskite solar cells. Perovskite is of interest
for solar cells because it absorbs light very efficiently. 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," says Aram
Amassian, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor
of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University.

"We're talking about sample substrates that are only one or two
centimeters square. However, people didn't think it was possible to
scale spin-coating up for manufacturing, using substrates that are tens
of centimeters square.

Instead, people have opted for a variety of other methods. But these
other methods produce perovskite photovoltaics that don't perform as
well as the thin films made using spin coating and required significant research and development." "What we've done here is demonstrate
that you can produce perovskite photovoltaics on larger substrates
using spin coating by designing a co-solvent dilution strategy," says
Michael Gra"tzel, co-corresponding author of the paper and a professor
at E'cole Polytechnique Fe'de'rale de Lausanne. "In other words, you
can scale up production of photovoltaics and preserve the excellent
performance of almost any type of perovskite thin film produced using
spin coating." Historically, people thought spin coating could not be
used to produce perovskite photovoltaics on industrial-scale substrates
in a material-efficient way because of the nature of both spin coating
and perovskites.



==========================================================================
Spin coating involves placing a liquid on the surface of a substrate and
then spinning the substrate, so that the liquid material spreads across
the surface.

However, when perovskite is applied using this technique, the solvents
that keep the perovskite in a liquid state don't evaporate quickly
enough. This causes much of the perovskite to fly off the edges, meaning
a lot of the perovskite material is wasted. It also results in irregular thickness of the perovskite on the surface, as well as some areas of the perovskite taking longer than others to dry. All of which is problematic
from a manufacturing standpoint.

"Our approach tackles this challenge by introducing a co-solvent that
allows the liquid perovskite to spread evenly and dry very quickly
and uniformly," says Hong Zhang of E'cole Polytechnique Fe'de'rale de
Lausanne, who is a co- lead author on the paper.

The new technique also significantly reduces waste and, by extension,
reduces toxic byproducts associated with manufacturing perovskite photovoltaics.

"The beauty of this technique is that 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 Tor Vergata. "Our work demonstrates that these existing technologies could be used to create perovskite solar cells. This could
really accelerate the production and deployment of perovskite solar panels
and cells." Collaborators on the demonstration project are already using
the new technique to produce modules that are tens of centimeters across
with excellent uniformity and performance.

"My team is now focused on using process automation and artificial
intelligence to build on this work and further improve efficiency,
stability and sustainability of perovskite photovoltaics," Amassian
says. "We're hoping to work with public and private sector interests
on finding ways to implement this work and accelerate the development
of perovskite solar cell technologies." The work was done with support
from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program,
the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, and the U.S. Office of Naval Research under grant number N00014-20-1-2573.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
North_Carolina_State_University. Original written by Matt Shipman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Hong Zhang, Kasra Darabi, Narges Yaghoobi Nia, Anurag Krishna,
Paramvir
Ahlawat, Boyu Guo, Masaud Hassan S. Almalki, Tzu-Sen Su,
Dan Ren, Viacheslav Bolnykh, Luigi Angelo Castriotta, Mahmoud
Zendehdel, Lingfeng Pan, Sandy Sanchez Alonso, Ruipeng Li, Shaik
M. Zakeeruddin, Anders Hagfeldt, Ursula Rothlisberger, Aldo Di
Carlo, Aram Amassian, Michael Gra"tzel. A universal co-solvent
dilution strategy enables facile and cost-effective fabrication
of perovskite photovoltaics. Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27740-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220125093001.htm

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