SEMINAR LMGP - November 21, 2022 - Prof. Dr. Aldo Di Carlo

Prof. Dr. Aldo Di Carlo

Head of the Institute for Structure of the Matter of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ISM), Rome, Italy
Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

The large library of two-dimensional materials can be exploited to master interface properties of perovskite solar cells. I will present the results of the use of 2D materials in perovskite cells, modules and panels. In particular, I will focus on a new class of 2D, namely MXenes (such as Ti3C2). Beside exceptional chemical and mechanical properties, MXenes offer a wide tunabilty of work function (WF) by varying their surface termination. WF can ranges from ≈2 eV (for OH-termination) to ≈6 eV (for O-termination). By producing well exfoliated Ti3C2Tx MXenes with a relatively low WF (~3.7eV) we demonstrate the capability to tune both perovskite absorber and electron transporting layer (ETL) WFs.[1] This strategy has been applied to n-i-p [1] and p-i-n [2] cells structure and exploited on large area modules [3]. We show that MXene interface engineering used on the n side of p-i-n cell (NiO/perovskite/C60/BCP/Cu) permits to increase enormously the stability of the cell with a T90 exceeding the 2000 h under continuous light soaking at Maximum Power Point (in ambient conditions) and T80>1000h for thermal stress (85 °C). [4] The use of a combination of 2D materials to improve performance and stability of perovskite technology has been extended to panels (9 panels of 0.5 sqm each) that have been tested for more than a year in a Solar Farm in Crete.[5] The results of this outdoor test in a real environment will be presented and performance and stability will be discussed.
 

References

[1] Agresti, A., Pazniak, A., Pescetelli, S. et al. Nat. Mater. 18, 1228–1234 (2019).
[2] D. Saranin et al. Nano Energy 82, 105771 (2021)
[3] S. Pescetelli et al. Nano Energy 95, 107019 (2022)
[4] A. Yukasheva, D. Saranin et al. Small 18, 2201730 (2022)
[5 ] Pescetelli, S., Agresti, A., et al. Nat Energy 7, 597–607 (2022).