Program Highlights: Enhance Solar Cell Efficiency

Xiao Chen Zeng and Jinsong Huang
Nebraska MRSEC

Halide perovskites are promising materials for using them in solar cells – electrical devices that convert the energy of light into electricity. One of the outstanding problems preventing the technological application of these materials is a large number of charged defects on their surfaces. These defects work as traps for electrons when they are extracted from the material under light illumination, thus reducing light-to-electricity conversion efficiency.

Nebraska MRSEC researchers in collaboration with their colleagues from Peking University in China have demonstrated a new approach to solve this problem. They used a Lewis base – a substance which causes traps for electrons on the surface of a halide perovskite to become chemically passive. The researchers showed that such trap passivation improves significantly electron extraction and leads a 45% light-to-electricity conversion efficiency enhancement of the halide perovskite solar cells.

These programs are supported by the National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research, Materials Research Science and Engineering Program, Grant 1420645.

A Lewis base multilayer introduced into a halide perovskite solar cell leads to efficient trap passivation and electron extraction, resulting in enhanced light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of the solar cell.