Project R-15137

Self-Assembled Monolayers for Metal-contact-Free Transparent Colourful Perovskite Solar Cell (MaFToPSC) (Research)

Perovskite solar cells (PVK SC) have emerged as a particularly promising high-performance PV technology (26.1% single junction; 33.9% Si/PVK tandem) owing to their unique opto-electronic properties. And recently, the use of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs; thickness 1nm), in lieu of traditional hole transporting layers (HTLs), has become the pivot of their research as it mitigates operational instability, while further enhancing device performance and eliminating complexities inherent to typical HTLs. Nevertheless, as their use is strongly limited to the photo-generated hole-sink of the device, there is in addition a great lack of fundamental understanding on the exact physical mechanisms taking place at the SAM-PVK interface, which give rise to these improvements. This project aims to uncover those elemental processes, and expand the use of SAMs to engineer the 'first-of-its-kind' metal-contact-free transparent PVK SCs demonstrating enhanced stability, performance as well as industrial sustainability.

01 November 2024 - 31 October 2027