University of Valencia develops low cost thin film photovoltaic device with high energy efficiency
The results of the research, carried out in collaboration with researchers of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, were published in the scientific magazine Nature Photonics.
The solar cell developed by the researchers of the ICMol consists of a thin perovskite film sandwiched in between two thin organic semiconductors. The total thickness of the device is less than half a micrometer. The hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite material can be prepared easily and at low cost. Hendrik Bolink explained that the devices were prepared with low temperature processes similar to those used in the printing industry which allows the use of plastic substrates such that flexible devices can be prepared.
The device can be made semitransparent which allows their integration with building facades since they are thin and light weight. In this way the sun light is filtered protecting the building interior from intense sun light while at the same electricity is generated.
An 85% of the solar cells that convert sun light into electricity are based on crystalline silicon, an expensive material, whereas the rest use polycrystalline thin film cells, mostly cadmium telluride/cadmium sulfide. The thin film cells are cheaper to produce yet are based on rare and rather toxic elements. “The demonstration of high efficiency in thin film solar cells based on abundantly available and cheap materials like as used in these perovskite based solar cells, allows for an increasing share of solar energy in the mix of renewable resources,” said to Dr. Bolink.
Dr. Bolink obtained his PhD in Materials Science at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands in 1997. He worked at the chemical multinational DSM as a materials scientist and project manager in the central research and new business development department, respectively. In 2001 he joined Philips, to lead the materials development activity of Philips’s PolyLED project.
Full bibliographic information – ‘Perovskite solar cells employing organic charge transport layers’. O. Malinkiewicz, Y. Aswani, Y. H. Lee, M. Minguez Espallargas, M. Graetzel, M. K. Nazeeruddin and H. J. Bolink. Nature Photonics DOI 10.1038/nphoton.2013.341
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