Sunlight is a simple and clean way to produce electricity and is often considered one of the most straightforward ways to transition to renewable energy. Currently, the market is dominated by silicon-based devices, which are becoming increasingly affordable. In the past, the main driving force for cost reduction was an increase in the efficiency of solar panels. However, Si solar cells are approaching their theoretical limit, and new devices must enter the market promptly to ensure a continued transition to renewable energy sources. One way to overcome these limitations is to construct tandem solar cells. In such devices, two or more absorber materials are combined into one device, thus reducing thermalization losses. Recently, perovskite semiconductor materials have emerged as promising materials for solar cell applications, in particular for use in tandem devices. Besides the perovskite absorbers, efficient charge transport materials must be developed to ensure trap-free interfaces, efficient transport of the charge carriers to their respective electrodes and durable devices. Positive charge selective monolayers of organic molecules have proven to be very successful during our previous project. We aim to advance upon this development with second part of the puzzle, namely electron selective self-assembled monolayers. In this project, we are expecting to gain a better understanding of the structure-properties relationships, leading to the next generation of self-assembled electron-selective monolayers for record-breaking single-junction and tandem devices.
Project funding:
Projects funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (RCL), Projects carried out by researchers’ teams
Period of project implementation: 2024-09-02 - 2027-08-31
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
Project partners: University of Oxford, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH
