Perovskites have been a great hope in the solar industry for years. A simple, large-scale industrial production of thin solar films is another hope. Researchers from Swansea University in Wales have now linked both topics. The team has developed a method to print perovskite cells from roll to roll (“R2R”) like newspaper. It published its results in the journal “Advanced Materials”.
Project manager Trystan Watson described the process as a “big step towards commercialization”. The key to this was the development of an inexpensive carbon-based ink. It is intended to replace the vapour-deposited gold electrodes used in conventional processes. The ink contains a mixture of solvents that dries as a thin film without damaging its backing. According to the researchers, printed on glass plates, the carbon electrodes showed a comparable efficiency of 13 to 14 percent to conventional gold electrodes, but had better performance at higher temperatures and a longer service life.
Printed solar foils on curved surfaces
Printed on a 20 meter long foil, the efficiency was 10.8 percent. This is less than half of the commercially available silicon modules, but the idea behind it is: If the foils can be produced as easily and cheaply as aluminum foil or chip bags, they can also be used on a large scale where it is difficult for classic modules – such as on curved surfaces.
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Presentation of a roll-to-roll printed perovskite solar cell.
“The concept of R2R-produced perovskite solar cells is not new in itself, it has been researched for several years,” says Markus Kohlstädt, perovskite expert at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg. The innovation lies in having replaced the expensive metal electrode with a graphite electrode that can be applied at normal pressure and without high temperatures. Although such electrodes have already been used for glass substrates or individual foils, the result from Swansea with a coating length of 20 meters is “very interesting for the further development of the technology, even if the isolated and tested cells are only one size of less than one square centimetre”. The next step is to use the process to manufacture larger solar cells and modules.
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