Geometric adjustment helps boost efficiency and durability of perovskite photovoltaic cells

Perovskite photo voltaic cells are shaping as much as be probably the most promising components in the way forward for photo voltaic vitality. Lighter, extra versatile and doubtlessly cheaper than present silicon-based cells, these photoelectric cells are nonetheless saddled by a significant problem: their low stability over time.

Though this crystalline material has been attracting the scientific group’s curiosity for greater than a decade, its excessive degradation when uncovered to ultraviolet radiationamongst different elements, has hampered its implementation within the photovoltaic business.

A latest research carried out by the FQM-204 group within the Division of Bodily Chemistry and Utilized Thermodynamics on the College of Cordoba (UCO), and wherein the Georgia Institute of Expertise (U.S.) additionally participated, has managed to extend the effectivity and sturdiness of those solar cellsresulting from a variation within the molecular geometry of one of many compounds which might be integrated into the photovoltaic cell.

In keeping with the outcomes of the work published in Supplies As we speakand as indicated by its foremost creator, Susana Ramos, the research has managed to spice up the effectivity of photo voltaic conversion into vitality to twenty.7%, in comparison with 18.3% obtained with out the incorporation of this new compound. As well as, and what appears much more related, the efficiency of the photovoltaic cell stays virtually secure after a thousand hours of publicity to the solar.

A delicate geometric match

The research was performed on a laboratory scale utilizing small photo voltaic cells (2.5 by 2.5 centimeters) and a photo voltaic simulator. Among the many completely different sheets of the sandwich construction fashioned by perovskite layers, the analysis staff integrated a molecule often called diamine, a compound that the scientific group has been engaged on for years resulting from its potential to get rid of floor defects, defend the photo voltaic cell, and stop its degradation.

One other of the collaborating researchers, Gustavo de Miguel, defined that one of many keys to the work was a delicate however decisive geometric adjustment within the geometry of this diamine, which was given a brand new construction with a hook-like form that permits it to be anchored extra firmly and set up extra strong interactions with the completely different layers of perovskite, thus guaranteeing a extra secure and sturdy photo voltaic cell.

The research, carried out throughout the framework of the European SUNREY challenge, represents a major step ahead towards fixing one of many nice challenges dealing with the photovoltaic vitality sector: guaranteeing that these cells can stay intact for lengthy durations of time. These photo voltaic cells, because of the flexibility of perovskite, may open the door to new functions, such because the roofs of electrical vehicles, or the curved surfaces of buildings, researcher Luis Camacho defined.

Nonetheless, for this to materialize on a big scale, and, as with every know-how underneath growth, it’ll first be obligatory to fulfill a key problem: transferring the vitality effectivity achieved in laboratory modules to the economic stage.