Development of a carbon electrode for high stability and protection of perovskite solar cells and photoelectrodes for water splitting

Carlos Andres Velasquez^a, Juan Jose Patiño^a, Juan Felipe Montoya^a, Franklin Jaramillo^a, Daniel Estiben Ramirez^a

^aCIDEMAT-University of Antioquia

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV23)

London, United Kingdom, 2023 June 12th - 14th

Organizers: Tracey Clarke, James Durrant and Trystan Watson

Poster, Carlos Andres Velasquez, 039
Publication date: 30th March 2023

The development of third generation solar cells has reached important levels of solar conversion efficiency currently. Due to the great qualities of these types of photovoltaic devices, synergies have been generated between academy and industry focused on research and production. However, it is clear that the great difficulty of perovskite cells is associated with the instability of the semiconductor in high humidity conditions, the processability, and cost of the electrodes. For this reason, one of the focuses that has taken great importance is the manufacture of electrodes based on carbon materials that allow scalability and provide protection and adequate load transport at the same time.

In this work, we have developed a graphite/carbon black paste with a PMMA polymeric matrix that allows the acquisition of a solution processed carbon electrode by a doctor blade technique which facilities its scalability. Furthermore, low electrical resistivity, high protection, and stability were obtained.

The developed electrode was used in nip-type perovskite solar cell as it also is correct band alignment and has a work function close to 5.0eV similar to the gold electrode, which favors charge extraction[1]. This type of cells and the characteristics of the carbon electrode allow coupling this system as a photoelectrode for the generation of oxygen and hydrogen by water splitting with the incorporation of catalysts and without causing the immediate degradation of perovskite, as evidenced in several works[2], [3].Therefore, we have developed a system based on carbon/catalyst integrated photoanodes by evaluating a delimited active area and found a high protection of the carbon electrode which is promising for the study of these systems.

References:

[1] R. Tao, Z. Sun, F. Li, W. Fang, and L. Xu, “Achieving Organic Metal Halide Perovskite into a Conventional Photoelectrode: Outstanding Stability in Aqueous Solution and High-Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting,” ACS Applied Energy Materials, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 1969–1976, 2019.

[2] I. Poli et al., “Graphite-protected CsPbBr3 perovskite photoanodes functionalised with water oxidation catalyst for oxygen evolution in water,” Nature Communications, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–10, 2019.

[3] H. Wang, X. Wang, H. Zhang, W. Ma, L. Wang, and X. Zong, “Organic−inorganic hybrid perovskites: Game-changing candidates for solar fuel production,” Nano Energy, vol. 71, no. February, p. 104647, 2020.

Acknowledgements:

We are grateful to Minciencias for financing the project "Generation of hydrogen with low environmental impact through the use of renewable energies, for subsequent use as clean fuel in transportation systems" under contract 177-2021.

I am grateful to CIDEMAT center of research and the University of Antioquia for the oportunitie and support during my master degree and my academic process. Aditionaly, to encourage me to attend this prestigious conference in my field of research to improve my knowledge.

nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.

MATSUS

Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.

Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics

The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.

International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics

The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.