Nanoparticle Arrays for Novel, Organized Perovskites Assisted by Copolymer assembly Kinetics (NANOPACK): Designer nanomaterials for energy applications

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The next generation of solar cells need to be cheap, accessible and flexible for widespread adoption. To reach the ambitious targets set by the IPCC report for achieving global carbon neutrality by 2050, there needs to be a wide scale move to sustainable approaches including a shift to electric vehicles for mass transportation and the redesign of buildings for energy efficiency.  Integrated solar is expected to be a major part of that move. 2017 saw record growth in global PV with a 33% increase in newly installed capacity over 2016. Cheap, accessible, and flexible solar cells that cover every surface are key pushing forward to the ambitious goal of photovoltaics constituting 30-50% of the global electricity share by 2050. Recently, metal-organic halide perovskites have emerged as the most promising new material amongst all photovoltaic technologies for low-cost mass production of devices that cover large areas. They have already achieved in-lab efficiency that surpasses other emerging technologies, including CdTe and CIGS, and even rival that of Si for single junction cells. Additionally, they have extremely low processing requirements. A high tolerance for both electronic and crystallographic defects leads to high efficiency devices from many deposition approaches, many combinations of perovskite materials, and many particle sizes. However, commercialization of any new technology has challenges. Due to the effectiveness of perovskites as an absorber material, a major bottleneck in reaching high efficiency devices are centered around the heterogeneity and quality of the interfaces at the contacts. Based on my nanoparticle/interface expertise gained with the support of my previous Discovery Grant, my proposed research program aims to address these issues using an innovative technique to incorporate homogenous, monodispersed, solution processed nanoparticles at interfaces in perovskite devices, to tackle issues of efficiency, stability and homogeneity. The other major aim of the proposed program is to tackle challenges to commercialization, such as the toxicity of Pb (currently a critical component of metal-organic perovskites) or the instability of the organic cation, by focussing on material development.  Producing large area, monodispersed, homogenous perovskite nanoparticles, using ambient deposition techniques that are adaptable to industrial scale-up are key innovations that will result from the proposed program.