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					</table><p>An international team of researchers, led by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EPFL</a>) in Switzerland, have developed a perovskite solar cell that features a 2D/3D heterojunction architecture with a power conversion efficiency of 25.32%  (certified 25.04%) under standard illumination.</p>
<p>The research, published in <em>Advanced Materials, </em>tested the perovskite solar cell for its stability after 2,000 hours of operation and observed that the cell retained a remarkable 90% of its initial efficiency.</p>
<p>The scientists used the newly developed cell technology to build a mini-module, showcasing its versatility and adaptability to larger-scale applications.</p>
<p>The mini-module reached an efficiency of 21.39%, an open-circuit voltage of 9.416 V, and a fill factor of 80.3%. The researchers believe that with further optimization, these modules have the potential to achieve an efficiency of approximately 23%.</p>
<p>The innovation could hold immense promise for various photovoltaic (PV) applications, including conventional PV systems, vehicle-integrated solar (VIPV), and building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).</p>
<p>The team said the key to the success of this novel solar cell lies in its unique 2D/3D heterojunction architecture. The design incorporates a 2D perovskite layer positioned at the interface between the perovskite and the hole transport layer.</p>
<p>The strategic placement significantly enhances the transport and extraction of charge carriers while simultaneously suppressing ion migration, thus optimizing the cell&#8217;s overall performance.</p>
<p>One of the notable characteristics of cells utilizing this architecture is their ability to exhibit large exciton binding energies. Additionally, they tend to be more stable than conventional 3D devices, primarily due to the protection offered by the organic ligands.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the interlaminar molecules in the 2D perovskites are crucial in saturating the 3D perovskite surface during fabrication. This action effectively reduces surface defects, forming a potential energy offset for field-effect passivation.</p>
<p>The research team employed a designed composition of materials to create this solar cell, which includes a tin oxide (FTO) substrate, an electron transport layer made of titanium oxide (TiO2) and tin (IV) oxide (SnO2), a 3D perovskite layer, a 2D perovskite layer, a spiro-OMeTAD hole transport layer, and a gold (Au) metal contact.</p>
<p>The fabrication process for the 2D perovskite absorber involved using a precursor called n-butylammonium iodide (BAI). This precursor was instrumental in increasing the activation energy of the layer to 0.52 eV.</p>
<p>The researchers attributed this increase to the larger migration energy resulting from the substantial distance between the interlayer spacings of the 2D perovskite.</p>
<p>Commercial production of these modules is expected within the next three years, with estimated cell costs of $0.02/kWh and an energy payback time of just six months.</p>
<p>A team of researchers at the  U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/researchers-perovskite-solar-cells-93-bifaciality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">achieved</a> 91%-93% of bifaciality on a newly developed bifacial perovskite solar cell.</p>
<p>Also, recently researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), in a significant discovery, <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/researchers-achieve-over-30-efficiency-perovskite-solar-cells" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> to surpass the efficiency milestone of 30% for tandem silicon-perovskite solar cells.</p>


Researchers Develop 2D/3D Perovskite Solar Cell with 25.32% Efficiency


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					</table><p>Researchers at the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EPFL</a>) and <a href="https://www.skku.edu/eng/index.do" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sungkyunkwan University</a> in South Korea have identified the cause behind the degradation of perovskite solar cells and developed a technique to improve its stability.</p>
<p>Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) utilize low-cost materials and are efficient. Further, they can surpass traditional silicon solar cells and potentially revolutionize clean energy.</p>
<p>But PSCs&#8217; response to external stimuli such as heat or moisture negatively impacts stability.</p>
<p>The researchers said their new method brings us closer to the widespread adoption of these cost-effective and efficient solar cells.</p>
<p><strong>&#8216;Facet engineering&#8217; to improve stability </strong></p>
<p>The team looked at two specific crystal facets or the crystal&#8217;s flat surface, characterized by a particular arrangement of atoms.</p>
<p>The arrangement of atoms on these facets affects the crystal&#8217;s properties and behavior, such as its stability and response to external stimuli like moisture or heat.</p>
<p>The researchers looked at two facets of perovskite crystals &#8212; represented as (100) and (111) facets.</p>
<p>The (100) facet is a plane that is perpendicular to a crystal&#8217;s c-axis, with its atoms arranged in a repeating pattern in the form of a square grid, and in the (111) facet, the atoms are arranged in a triangular grid.</p>
<p>The researchers found that the (100) facet is particularly prone to degradation as it can quickly transition to an unstable, inactive phase when exposed to moisture. In contrast, the (111) facet was found to be much more stable and resistant to degradation.</p>
<p>The researchers also identified the cause of the degradation. They found that it was due to a strong bond between the perovskite and water molecules, which caused the transition from the stable to unstable phase.</p>
<p>The team used their findings to develop a &#8220;facet engineering strategy,&#8221; in which they used a special substance called ligand molecules to grow the more stable (111) facet.</p>
<p>This resulted in perovskite films that were exceptionally stable and resistant to moisture and heat.</p>
<p>The researchers said their study represents an important step forward in developing PSCs, as stability is a major hurdle to their commercialization.</p>
<p>A team of researchers from EPFL in December 2022, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/swiss-researchers-say-raised-perovskite-cells-efficiency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a method that improves both power conversion efficiency and stability of solar cells based on pure iodide and mixed-halide perovskites.</p>
<p>Earlier in the month, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/iit-roorkee-claim-17-efficiency-perovskite-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they had successfully developed a prototype of a low-cost, high-quality perovskite solar cell that achieved a stable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.05%.</p>


Researchers Improve Perovskite Solar Cell’s Resistance to Degradation


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					</table><p>Researchers at the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EPFL</a>) have invented a solar-powered device that is capable of harvesting water from the air for conversion into hydrogen fuel.</p>
<p>The research team at EPFL has developed the system by combining a semiconductor-based technology with novel electrodes.</p>
<p>These electrodes allow the device to maximize contact with water in the air. Since it is transparent, it maximizes sunlight exposure of the semiconductor coating.</p>
<p>“To realize a sustainable society, we need ways to store renewable energy as chemicals that can be used as fuels and feedstocks in industry. Solar energy is the most abundant form of renewable energy, and we are striving to develop economically competitive ways to produce solar fuels,” said Sivula, Principal Investigator of the study.</p>
<p>The researchers said they took inspiration for their device from the process of photosynthesis in plants which converts sunlight into chemical energy using carbon dioxide from the air.</p>
<p>The device’s transparent gas diffusion electrodes when coated with a light-harvesting semiconductor material act like an artificial leaf &#8212; performing artificial photosynthesis which is able to store the sun’s energy in the form of hydrogen bonds.</p>
<p>The researchers said the semiconductor-based technology is scalable and easy to prepare.</p>
<p>“Since each step is relatively simple and scalable, I think that our approach will open new horizons for a wide range of applications starting from gas diffusion substrates for solar-driven hydrogen production,” Marina Caretti, lead author of the work, said.</p>
<p>The team of researchers as well as other research groups had previously shown that it is possible to perform artificial photosynthesis by generating hydrogen fuel from liquid water and sunlight using a device called a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell.</p>
<p>A PEC cell is generally known as a device that uses incident light to stimulate a photosensitive material, like a semiconductor, immersed in a liquid solution to cause a chemical reaction.</p>
<p>But this process posed practical difficulties.</p>
<p>The team said they wanted to show that the PEC technology can be adapted for harvesting humidity from the air instead, which led to the development of their new gas diffusion electrode.</p>
<p>The researchers are currently focusing on optimizing the system to advance this technology and develop new ways to convert hydrogen into liquid fuels.</p>
<p>In December 2022, researchers from EPFL <a href="https://mercomindia.com/swiss-researchers-say-raised-perovskite-cells-efficiency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a method that improves both power conversion efficiency and stability of solar cells based on pure iodide as well as mixed-halide perovskites.</p>
<p>Last September, researchers at the University of Melbourne <a href="https://mercomindia.com/melbourne-university-researchers-build-device-to-generate-hydrogen-from-air/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a way to generate hydrogen directly from the air, eliminating the dependency on freshwater resources.</p>
<p>Image: EPFL</p>


Researchers Produce Hydrogen Fuel from Air Using Solar Power


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					</table><p>Researchers at <a href="https://www.epfl.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EPFL</a>’s Photovoltaics and Thin film electronics laboratory and <a href="https://www.csem.ch/Home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CSEM</a>’s Sustainable Energy Center claim to have set two world records by achieving an efficiency of over 30% for perovskite-on-silicon-tandem solar cells. This path-breaking milestone was independently certified by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).</p>
<p>Silicon, the most adopted material in solar cell technologies, has a theoretical efficiency limit of 29%. Current efficiencies for this technology stand a little below 27%. The researchers at EPFL and CSEM adopted materials and fabrication techniques to deposit high-quality perovskite layers from solution on a planarized silicon surface, reaching a power conversion efficiency of 30.93% for a 1 cm<sup>2</sup> solar cell. This was for a planar device architecture and is a world record.</p>
<p>By working on a new version of a hybrid vapor/solution processing technique compatible with textured silicon surfaces, the researchers at EPFL and CSEM have produced a solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 31.25% on 1 cm<sup>2</sup>. This was for a textured device architecture and is the second world record.</p>
<p>The second record provides a higher current and is compatible with the structure of current industrial solar cells. “We have passed a psychological barrier. We have validated experimentally the high-efficiency potential of perovskite-on-silicon tandems,” said Christophe Ballif, Head of the EPFL Photovoltaics Laboratory and CSEM’s Sustainable energy center.</p>
<p>The 30% efficiency mark had already been achieved with other types of materials, namely III-V semiconductors.  These materials and the processes used to make them are too expensive to sustain the energy transition.</p>
<p>These results will now require further research and development to allow scaling up onto larger surface areas.</p>
<p>The research has received funding from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the European Commission, the Services Industriels de Geneve, and the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative of the ETH domain.</p>
<p>The previous efficiency conversion record of 29.8% for perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells was <a href="https://mercomindia.com/conversion-efficiency-perovskite-silicon-solar-cell/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">set</a> by a team at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin.</p>
<p>In June this year, scientists from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) <a href="https://mercomindia.com/2d-cations-tin-lead-perovskite-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a new tin-lead perovskite tandem cell merging different layers of two chemical compounds achieving a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.5%.</p>
<p>Image credit: CSEM</p>


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