Flexible Perovskite solar cells employing in-house engineered hole transport material irradiated under atmospheric neutrons

giulio koch^a, Daniel Augusto Machado de Alencar^b, Cullen Chosy^c^,^d, Samyuktha Noola^b, Farshad Jafarzadeh^a, Kyle Frohna^c^,^d, Matteo Bonomo^b, Pierluigi Quagliotto^b, Paolo Rech^e, Carlo Cazzaniga^f, Marco Ottavi^g^,^h, Francesca De Rossi^a, Samuel Stranks^c^,^d, Claudia Barolo^b, Francesca Brunetti^a

^aCHOSE, Dep. of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata 00133, Italy

^bDepartment of Chemistry, NIS Interdepartmental Centre and INSTM Reference Centre, Università Degli Studì di Torino, Via Pietro Giuria 7, 10125, Torino, Italy.

^cDepartment of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK.

^dCavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.

^eHiCREST, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, 38123 Povo, Italy.

^fUKRI-STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot,OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.

^gDep. of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata 00133, Italy.

^hCAES, University of Twente, Enschede, 7522 NB, The Netherlands.

NIPHO
Proceedings of International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics and Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO24)

Sardinia, Italy, 2024 June 17th - 18th

Organizers: Giulia Grancini, Francesca Brunetti and Maria Antonietta Loi

Poster, giulio koch, 034
Publication date: 25th April 2024

Flexible perovskite solar cells (f-PSC) are excellent candidates for space applications thanks to record efficiencies of 23.4% [1], close to the 26.1% record reached by rigid devices [a], and excellent power densities as high as 30 W/g [2].

Our previous work in Hole Transport Material (HTM) optimization revealed the positive impact of the insertion of benzothiadiazole (BTD) unit on a P3HT scaffold upon neutron irradiation [3]. Here, we synthesized two different HTMs in which PTAA is copolymerized with (i) a phenothiazine or (ii) both a phenothiazine and a BTD. As an added value, the new HTMs could be processed in more sustainable solvents than toluene, i.e., THF.

Neutrons have been shown to induce degradation in the performance of traditional solar cells in space. However, the literature on PSC matters is still not as extensive. Studying potential damage sources selectively will help us estimate our devices' aging in space more accurately. Therefore, we studied degradation damages induced by atmospheric-like neutrons (fluence of 5*10⁹ n/cm²) provided by the Chip-IR beamline in the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, which can represent the environment in Low Earth Orbit [4]. PV characterization of the devices showed that the new HTMs are a viable alternative to the commercially available PTAA, with improved resilience to atmospheric neutrons. Furthermore, photoluminescence imaging revealed negligible damage in the active perovskite itself, suggesting that the loss in electrical performance is attributable to charge extraction processes and interface degradation.

[a]

References:

[1] Wu, J., Chen, P., Xu, H. et al. Ultralight flexible perovskite solar cells. Sci. China Mater. 65, 2319–2324 (2022)

[2] Wu et al., Joule (2022), 7, 1-18

[3] De Rossi et al, Nanoenergy 93 (2022) 106879

[4] C. D. Frost, S. Ansell and G. Gorini, "A new dedicated neutron facility for accelerated SEE testing at the ISIS facility," 2009 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium, Montreal, QC, Canada, 2009, pp. 952-955

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.