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Pinholes (in the top layer of perovskite solar cells) Be Gone!
http://www.oist.jp/news-center/news/2015/6/2/pinholes-be-gone[font face=Serif][font size=5]Pinholes Be Gone![/font]
2 Jun 2015
[font size=3]Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have eliminated problematic pinholes in the top layer of next-generation solar cells in development. At the same time, they have significantly improved the lifetime of the solar cell and made it thinner. The findings were recently published in Scientific Reports.
The pinholes, identified by OIST’s Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit led by Prof. Yabing Qi, were described in the Chemistry of Materials earlier this year. The pinholes in the top layer of the solar cell, known as the hole transport layer, were identified as a key cause for the quick degradation of perovskite solar cells. Researchers around the world are investigating the potential of perovskite, a manmade organic-inorganic hybrid material, as an alternative to silicon-based solar cells.
“Pinholes are a very critical problem because it's a pathway for moisture and oxygen to attack the perovskite material, which is the active layer converting sunlight to energy,” said Min-Cherl Jung, a staff scientist at OIST and first author of this work. “Without pinholes in the hole transport layer, the perovskite is protected and the lifetime improves.”
The researchers eliminated the pinholes by using a different method to create the top layer of the solar cell, which is made of a material called spiro-OMeTAD. Instead of dissolving spiro-OMeTAD powder in a solution and then spin-coating it onto perovskite, they evaporated the powder in a vacuum chamber and the spiro-OMeTAD molecules deposited onto the solar cell.
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2 Jun 2015
[font size=3]Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have eliminated problematic pinholes in the top layer of next-generation solar cells in development. At the same time, they have significantly improved the lifetime of the solar cell and made it thinner. The findings were recently published in Scientific Reports.
The pinholes, identified by OIST’s Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit led by Prof. Yabing Qi, were described in the Chemistry of Materials earlier this year. The pinholes in the top layer of the solar cell, known as the hole transport layer, were identified as a key cause for the quick degradation of perovskite solar cells. Researchers around the world are investigating the potential of perovskite, a manmade organic-inorganic hybrid material, as an alternative to silicon-based solar cells.
“Pinholes are a very critical problem because it's a pathway for moisture and oxygen to attack the perovskite material, which is the active layer converting sunlight to energy,” said Min-Cherl Jung, a staff scientist at OIST and first author of this work. “Without pinholes in the hole transport layer, the perovskite is protected and the lifetime improves.”
The researchers eliminated the pinholes by using a different method to create the top layer of the solar cell, which is made of a material called spiro-OMeTAD. Instead of dissolving spiro-OMeTAD powder in a solution and then spin-coating it onto perovskite, they evaporated the powder in a vacuum chamber and the spiro-OMeTAD molecules deposited onto the solar cell.
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