Publication date: 1st July 2014
All low temperature manufactured organic-inorganic trihalide perovskite solar cells are now a reality, meaning that perovskite photovoltaics could have significantly lower embodied energy than more established photovoltaic technologies.
To date, some of the most efficient solution processed perovskite solar cells feature a pre-deposited Al2O3 scaffold. We have previously shown [1] that additions of alumina nanoparticles (up to 5 wt.%), to the perovskite precursor solution yield improvements in the device performance of planar heterojunction perovskite cells. It is thought that this improvement is achieved by the nanoparticles influencing perovskite crystallization and subsequent morphology, giving rise to better substrate surface coverage and less pinholes when compared to planar heterojunction devices - manufactured under the same processing conditions and without nanoparticles. This is evidenced by an increase in VOC with increasing nanoparticle loading and SEM images of the crystalized films showing greater substrate coverage
In this work, we have substituted the alumina nanoparticles with 3-aminopropyl (3-oxobutanoic acid) functionalized silica nanoparticles (f-SiO2). We observe performance enhancements in planar heterojunction (PHJ) devices made with up to 0.75 wt. % f -SiO2 nanoparticles present in the precursor solution, yielding power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of up to 12.4 %, compared to the maximum PCE of 10.5 % in the equivalent PHJ devices made without f -SiO2 nanoparticles. The f -SiO2 functional group features a terminal carboxylic acid group, which appears to bind to the compact TiO2 layer inside a pinhole void. The performance enhancement arises in part from an average increase to VOC by up to 50 mV when the nanoparticles are present in the precursor solution and is attributed to substrate passivation by f -SiO2 nanoparticles binding to the compact TiO2 layer within pinholes formed in the perovskite film during processing.
1. M. J. Carnie, C. Charbonneau, M. L. Davies, J. Troughton, T. M. Watson, K. Wojciechowski, H. Snaith and D. A. Worsley, Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 7893–7895.
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.
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.
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.