Scientists develop spray-on solar cells

27 August 2014 Power Electronics / Power Management

A team of scientists at the UK’s University of Sheffield has become the first to fabricate perovskite solar cells using a spray-painting process – a discovery that could help cut the cost of solar electricity.

Efficient organometal halide perovskite-based photovoltaics were first demonstrated in 2012, and this highly promising material is gaining in popularity for solar cells as it combines high efficiency with low materials costs.

Experts from the university’s department of physics and astronomy, and department of chemical and biological engineering, have previously used the spray-painting method to produce solar cells using organic semiconductors, but using perovskite is a major step forward. The process wastes very little of the perovskite material and can be scaled to high-volume manufacturing in a way similar to applying paint to cars and graphic printing.

Lead researcher, Professor David Lidzey, said: “There is a lot of excitement around perovskite-based photovoltaics. Remarkably, this class of material offers the potential to combine the high performance of mature solar cell technologies with the low embedded energy costs of production of organic photovoltaics.”

While most solar cells are manufactured using energy intensive materials like silicon, perovskites, by comparison, require much less energy to make. By spray-painting the perovskite layer in air the team hopes the overall energy used to make a solar cell can be reduced further.

According to Lidzey, “The best certified efficiencies from organic solar cells are around 10%. Perovskite cells now have efficiencies of up to 19%. This is not so far behind that of silicon at 25% – the material that dominates the worldwide solar market.”

He explains that the perovskite devices his team has created still use similar structures to organic cells, but replace the key light absorbing layer – the organic layer – with the spray-painted perovskite. “Using a perovskite absorber instead of an organic absorber gives a significant boost in terms of efficiency,” Lidzey says. “This study advances existing work where the perovskite layer has been deposited from solution using laboratory scale techniques. It’s a significant step towards efficient, low-cost solar cell devices made using high-volume, roll-to-roll processing methods.”

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