New Materials, Processes, and Cell Designs for Emerging Photovoltaic Technology

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Photovoltaic (PV) devices - solar cells - are one of the few technologies capable of producing safe, clean, renewable energy on a global scale, and will be crucial to any effort to curb the use of fossil fuels. For the past four decades, devices based on multi-crystalline silicon have been the dominant technology in the PV marketplace. However, recent work has shown that two new classes of materials - organic semiconductors and lead halide perovskites - can be used to produce solar cells with dramatically reduced costs and energy inputs. Unfortunately, the commercial potential of these two materials is currently limited; organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) have a power conversion efficiency that is less than half that of conventional silicon devices, while perovskite solar cells (PSCs) suffer from a sensitivity to moisture and light, leading to extremely short device lifetimes.***The proposed research will expand upon an existing research program focused on improving the efficiency, scalability and lifetime of these emerging PV technologies. New conjugated organic materials will be synthesized and tested for their ability to function as either the light absorbing layer in OPVs or as the interfacial layer in PSCs. Guided by advanced synchrotron techniques available at the Canadian Light Source, next-generation processing methods will be developed to improve cell efficiency. Finally, these same synchrotron methods will be used to study how these solar cells fail under real world conditions, enabling cell failure mechanisms to be identified and systematically eliminated. The ultimate goal of this program is the development of new, cost-effective, high-efficiency photovoltaic devices, which will help enable Canadians to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and meet their commitments to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.