Chinese,Swiss Scientists Find Cheaper & Faster Way For Perovskite Solar Cell Production

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Scientists from China and Sweden have come up with a method that could enable manufacturing of more advanced solar cells on a large scale with lower costs. If that sounds like the holy grail of solar production, then it really is solar costs have turned sticky over the past 2 years.

According to a detailed research published in peer-reviewed journal ‘Science,’ the researchers from Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China, and from the Swiss Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have proved high stability in perovskite solar cell when they scaled up the technology. The finding is significant if it progresses, as commercialising perovskite solar cell manufacture at scale with lower costs or even comparable costs has been a huge challenge for manufacturers so far.

The technology related with the high-performing perovskite solar cell (PSC) is usually dwarfed by complex processes, high costs and rampant instability.

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Lead author of the paper Prof Li Yong from HUST said, “Although the power conversion efficiency of some PSCs can now exceed 25%, such high efficiencies have been obtained only with small-area PSCs.” He said that as the surface area increases, film unevenness, energy losses from photocurrent collection and instability of the film escalate steeply with device area. Also, larger-area devices often have substantial performance losses.

The Technological Achievement

The paper published said that efficient methodology is achieved as the researchers introduced a fullerene derivative chemical agent called CPPA that helps consolidate the crystal structure of perovskite films and steps-up the tolerance of the film against illumination, heat and moisture.

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The researchers said that in the newly developed process perovskite solar cells achieved very high operational stability. Large scale manufacturing is also possible as the improved vacuum flash solution-processing method spreads ‘perovskite inks’ on the mould that allows rapid crystallisation of perovskite films.

The cells were made more stable as the researchers changed components of a solution in the processing of hole-transporting layers. According to the paper published in Journal, the lab ageing tests show that the surface of the improved film remained smooth and voids, microdefects and particles emerged on the original film.

The power conversion efficiency was recorded by the researchers at 23.5%. Also, when the solar cells were illuminated constantly for more than 3200 hours at maximum power at 70 degrees Celsius or 158 Fahrenheit, the initial efficiency was retained at 95.5%.

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Prof Li said, “The holistic strategy for stabilising the perovskite/HTL heterostructure provides promising technical routes for fabricating efficient and stable perovskite solar modules.”