Physicists in the United States have cleared a significant roadblock to the commercialization of solar cells made from halide perovskites as a lower-cost, higher-efficiency substitute for silicon for producing power from the sun.
The clean energy research led by The University of Toledo in collaboration with the University of Washington, University of Toronto, Northwestern University, and Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology was published in the journal Science, bringing the technology one step closer to powering solar panels in the consumer market.
“Because of their high power conversion efficiencies and low manufacturing cost, perovskite solar cells offer a path to lowering the cost of solar electricity,” said Dr. Yanfa Yan, UToledo Distinguished University Professor of physics and a member of the UToledo Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization. “But, we wanted to improve the durability of the new solar cell technology during outside operation.”
The technology must be able to withstand decades of outdoor use in all types of weather and temperatures without corroding or breaking down.
“This barrier to implementing the potential of perovskite solar cells is no longer there,” Yan added. “After a decade of study and development, our breakthrough work enhanced gadget stability and provided strategies to achieve success.”
The component that improves adhesion and mechanical toughness was found by the team. Researchers demonstrated experimentally that perovskite solar cells treated with 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane (DPPP), a diphosphine Lewis base molecule, retained a high power conversion efficiency and demonstrated superior durability after continuous operation under simulated and outdoor conditions.
“Phosphine-containing Lewis base molecules with two electron-donating atoms bond strongly to the perovskite surface,” Yan said. “When we treated the perovskite solar cells with DPPP, we noticed significant improvements in perovskite film quality and device performance.”
“DPPP is also a marketable product with low cost and ease of access, making it suited for the commercialization of perovskite solar cells,” said Dr. Zhaoning Song, a research assistant professor in Yan’s lab at UToledo and one of the paper’s authors.
The researchers suggest the next step is to use their discoveries to make perovskite panels more stable. Dr. Chongwen Li, the study’s lead author and a UToledo alumni, collaborated with Yan as a graduate student. In 2020, Li will get his Ph.D. in physics from UToledo. He is a University of Toronto postdoctoral researcher.
“Continued exploration of the potentiality in the stability of perovskite solar cells is a critical goal for the global economy’s continued decarbonization,” Li added. “After the successful demonstration of DPPP in enhancing the stability of perovskite solar cells, we are now applying it to large area perovskite solar panels and advancing the prototype device to commercialization.” For more than 30 years, UToledo has been a pioneer in solar energy research and development.
It’s been a decade since Yan’s team at UToledo discovered the ideal properties of perovskites, which are compound materials with a unique crystal structure formed through chemistry, and began to focus their efforts on combining two different solar cells to increase the total electrical power generated by using two different parts of the sun’s spectrum.
A team of scientists from the University of Toledo, the University of Toronto, and Northwestern University worked in November to produce an all-perovskite tandem solar cell with a record-breaking voltage. The findings were reported in the journal Nature.
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