Researchers at the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have successfully developed a novel radical self-assembled molecular material for next-generation solar cells.
This innovation overcomes both the inadequate performance and the difficulty of uniformly fabricating large-area hole-transport layers in perovskite solar cells. Its performance has been certified by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
These findings were published in the journal Science on Thursday under the title "Stable and Uniform Self-Assembled Organic Diradical Molecules for Perovskite Photovoltaics."
"With the high performance and low cost of this material, it is expected that the production cost will be greatly reduced in the production line. After industrialization, customers will get products with higher cost performance," said Qin Chuanjiang, researcher from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Qin is among the researchers who spent three years independently creating a "double-radical self-assembled molecule" and integrating it into perovskite devices.
According to tests, the new material more than doubles carrier-transport rates under simulated operating conditions.
Devices built with it also show virtually no performance degradation after continuous operation for thousands of hours.
Over the past decade, perovskite compounds have become the material of choice for many companies developing next-generation solar cells.
Qin says the team's next step is to push for industrial-scale applications of the new material and to continue advancing the technology.
Chinese scientists develop new material for next-generation solar cells
