Direct sunlight conversion into electricity, by means of photovoltaic elements, is one of the key elements of sustainable development. Therefore, solar cells (SC) are extensively studied in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuel. The fastest progress was reached for the perovskite solar cells (PSC), whose efficiency has surpassed 24% value. However, there are still several problems, associated with the organic hole-transporting materials (HTMs). Researchers from the KTU department of organic chemistry, in collaboration with scientists from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, have proposed to change traditional HTMs, formed via spin-coating, with hole-selective monolayers. SC with monolayers has shown a competitive performance of 17.8%, which was only slightly below than that of the PTAA standard (19.2%).
In this project, a series of compounds will be synthesized, in order to evaluate the influence of the aliphatic linker on the monolayer formation and final device performance. It is expected, that longer linkers will improve the reproducibility of the results, due to the ability to form more ordered structures. However, the longer insulating fragment should increase resistivity, therefore reducing device performance. It is expected to find an optimal length of the linker, to ensure the highest efficiency of PSCs. Expected project outcome – hole-selective materials, with the monolayer formation ability, for the perovskite solar cells. During this project, a young researcher will deepen her knowledge in the field of the synthesis and analysis of new functional materials, and will get competence in the perspective fields of organic electronics and solar cells.
Project funding:
Project is funded by EU Structural Funds according to the 2014–2020 Operational Programme for the European Union Funds’ Investments priority “Development of scientific competence of researchers, other researchers, students through practical scientific activities” under Measure No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712.
Period of project implementation: 2019-10-15 - 2020-05-31
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
