| Nov 08, 2024 |
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(Nanowerk News) A Korean research team has developed an innovative perovskite solar cell technology that addresses one of photovoltaics’ fundamental challenges: conventional solar cells cannot utilize approximately 52% of total solar energy because they poorly capture near-infrared radiation. Their technology maximizes near-infrared light capture performance while greatly improving power conversion efficiency. This greatly increases the possibility of commercializing next-generation solar cells and is expected to contribute to important technological advancements in the global solar cell market.
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The research team of Professor Jung-Yong Lee of the School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST and Professor Woojae Kim of the Department of Chemistry at Yonsei University announced that they have developed a high-efficiency and high-stability organic-inorganic hybrid solar cell production technology that maximizes near-infrared light capture beyond the existing visible light range.
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| The illustration of the mechanism of improving the electronic structure and charge transfer capability through Perovskite/organic hybrid device structure and dipole interfacial layers (DILs). The proposed dipole interfacial layer forms a strong interfacial dipole, effectively reducing the energy barrier between the perovskite and organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ), and suppressing hole accumulation. This technology improves near-infrared photon harvesting and charge transfer, and as a result, the power conversion efficiency of the solar cell increases to 24.0%. In addition, it achieves excellent stability by maintaining performance for 1,200 hours even in an extremely humid environment. (Image: KAIST)
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The results have been published in Advanced Materials (“Suppressing Hole Accumulation Through Sub-Nanometer Dipole Interfaces in Hybrid Perovskite/Organic Solar Cells for Boosting Near-Infrared Photon Harvesting”).
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The research team suggested and advanced a hybrid next-generation device structure with organic photo-semiconductors that complements perovskite materials limited to visible light absorption and expands the absorption range to near-infrared.
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In addition, they revealed the electronic structure problem that mainly occurs in the structure and announced a high-performance solar cell device that dramatically solved this problem by introducing a dipole layer*.
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*Dipole layer: A thin material layer that controls the energy level within the device to facilitate charge transport and forms an interface potential difference to improve device performance.
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Existing lead-based perovskite solar cells have a problem in that their absorption spectrum is limited to the visible light region with a wavelength of 850 nanometers (nm) or less, which prevents them from utilizing approximately 52% of the total solar energy.
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To solve this problem, the research team designed a hybrid device that combined an organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) with perovskite and implemented a solar cell that can absorb up to the near-infrared region.
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In particular, by introducing a sub-nanometer dipole interface layer, they succeeded in alleviating the energy barrier between the perovskite and the organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ), suppressing charge accumulation, maximizing the contribution to the near-infrared, and improving the current density (JSC) to 4.9 mA/cm².
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The key achievement of this study is that the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the hybrid device has been significantly increased from 20.4% to 24.0%. In particular, this study achieved a high internal quantum efficiency (IQE) compared to previous studies, reaching 78% in the near-infrared region.
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In addition, this device showed high stability, showing excellent results of maintaining more than 80% of the initial efficiency in the maximum output tracking for more than 800 hours even under extreme humidity conditions.
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Professor Jung-Yong Lee said, “Through this study, we have effectively solved the charge accumulation and energy band mismatch problems faced by existing perovskite/organic hybrid solar cells, and we will be able to significantly improve the power conversion efficiency while maximizing the near-infrared light capture performance, which will be a new breakthrough that can solve the mechanical-chemical stability problems of existing perovskites and overcome the optical limitations.”
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