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Coatings
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Organic and Hybrid Thin Films for Solar Cells
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Organic and Hybrid Thin Films for Solar Cells

A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Thin Films".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 8512

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Lucia Nicoleta Leonat

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
The National Institute of Materials Physics, Măgurele, Romania
Interests: perovskite solar cells; semiconductor materials; conducting polymers; thin films; surface characterization by scanning probe microscopy (SPM); electron microscopy (SEM, EDX)

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent research in the photovoltaic field has been dominated by hybrid perovskite-based solar cells, opening an entirely new research direction because of the huge potential offered by this type of material, and its ease of processing. The heart of a hybrid solar cell is the perovskite semiconductor, which can either work as a sensitizer for a large bandgap semiconductor, such as TiO2, or can function as a semicondutor by itself in planar devices. The dominant behaviour in a solar cell can result exclusively from the composition and morphology of the perovskite, from the simple MAPbI3, to mixed-cations and mixed-halides, and there is huge effort invested in this aspect.

Moreover, hybrid perovskite solar cells have borrowed the sandwich structure from organic or dye-sensitized cells. The charge selective materials (layers), namely, the oxides or polymers with which the perovskite comes into contact, are implicit in the dynamics happening at these interfaces, and can drastically affect the device performance; therefore, they have become very important as well.

The purpose of this Special Issue, " Organic and hybrid thin films for solar cells", is focused on exploring the latest advances in the materials, performance, and efficiency of photovoltaic devices based on thin organic, hybrid, and oxide films, representing all of the component layers in a solar cell.

Potential Topics:

  • Functional thin films for solar cells;
  • Interface dynamics—charge transfer, ion migration;
  • Thin film and interface characterization, defects, and energy levels;
  • Advances in perovskite solar cells, materials, and processing;
  • Upscaling—challenges and advances, and deposition methods.

Dr. Lucia Nicoleta Leonat
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • perovskite
  • thin film
  • solar cells
  • functional
  • oxide
  • organic

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 5285 KiB  
Article
Partial Replacement of Dimethylformamide with Less Toxic Solvents in the Fabrication Process of Mixed-Halide Perovskite Films
by Viorica Stancu, Andrei Gabriel Tomulescu, Lucia Nicoleta Leonat, Liliana Marinela Balescu, Aurelian Catalin Galca, Vasilica Toma, Cristina Besleaga, Sarah Derbali and Ioana Pintilie
Coatings 2023, 13(2), 378; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13020378 - 7 Feb 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1752
Abstract
The technology of perovskite solar cells (PSC) is getting close to breaching the consumer market. Yet, one of the current challenges is to reduce the toxicity during their fabrication by reducing the use of the toxic solvents involved in the perovskite fabrication process. [...] Read more.
The technology of perovskite solar cells (PSC) is getting close to breaching the consumer market. Yet, one of the current challenges is to reduce the toxicity during their fabrication by reducing the use of the toxic solvents involved in the perovskite fabrication process. A good solubilization of lead halides used in hybrid perovskite preparation is required, and it is only possible with polar solvents. A mixture of dimethylformamide (DMF) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is the most popular solvent combination for a perovskite precursor solution. DMF is necessary to ensure a good dissolution of lead iodide, but it is also the most toxic solvent. In this paper, we study the replacement of the dimethylformamide with presumably less toxic alternatives, such as N-methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) and ethyl acetate (EA), for the preparation of the K0.1FA0.7MA0.2PbI2.8Cl0.2 (KFAMA) hybrid perovskite. The perovskite thin films were investigated by various characterization techniques: X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and UV–vis spectroscopy, while the photovoltaic parameters were determined by measuring the IV curves of the corresponding solar cells. The present study shows that by keeping the same deposition parameters as when only DMF solvent is used, the partial solvent substitution with NMP and EA gives promising results for reducing the toxicity of the fabrication process of KFAMA-based PSCs. Thus, with no specific optimization of the deposition process, and for the maximum possible partial substitution of DMF with NMP and EA solvents, the loss in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) value is only 35% and 18%, respectively, associated with the more structural defects promoted by NMP and EA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Organic and Hybrid Thin Films for Solar Cells)
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14 pages, 4425 KiB  
Article
Combustion Processed Nickel Oxide and Zinc Doped Nickel Oxide Thin Films as a Hole Transport Layer for Perovskite Solar Cells
by Ponmudi Selvan Thiruchelvan, Chien-Chih Lai and Chih-Hung Tsai
Coatings 2021, 11(6), 627; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings11060627 - 24 May 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2733
Abstract
Combustion processed nickel oxide (NiOx) thin film is considered as an alternative to the sol-gel processed hole transport layer for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this paper, NiOx thin film was prepared by the solution–combustion process at 250 °C, a [...] Read more.
Combustion processed nickel oxide (NiOx) thin film is considered as an alternative to the sol-gel processed hole transport layer for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this paper, NiOx thin film was prepared by the solution–combustion process at 250 °C, a temperature lower than the actual reaction temperature. Furthermore, the properties of the NiOx hole transport layer (HTL) in PSCs were enhanced by the incorporation of zinc (Zn) in NiOx thin films. X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed that the formation of NiOx was achieved at lower annealing temperature, which confirms the process of the combustion reaction. The electrical conductivity was greatly improved with Zn doping into the NiOx crystal lattice. Better photoluminescence (PL) quenching, and low PL lifetime decay were responsible for better charge separation in 5% Zn doped NiOx, which results in improved device performance of PSCs. The maximum power conversion efficiency of inverted PSCs made with pristine NiOx and 5% Zn-NiOx as the HTL was 13.62% and 14.87%, respectively. Both the devices exhibited better stability than the PEDOT:PSS (control) device in an ambient condition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Organic and Hybrid Thin Films for Solar Cells)
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12 pages, 4763 KiB  
Article
Cesium-Containing Triple Cation Perovskite Solar Cells
by Steponas Ašmontas, Aurimas Čerškus, Jonas Gradauskas, Asta Grigucevičienė, Konstantinas Leinartas, Andžej Lučun, Kazimieras Petrauskas, Algirdas Selskis, Algirdas Sužiedėlis, Edmundas Širmulis and Remigijus Juškėnas
Coatings 2021, 11(3), 279; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings11030279 - 27 Feb 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3314
Abstract
Cesium-containing triple cation perovskites are attracting significant attention as suitable tandem partners for silicon solar cells. The perovskite layer of a solar cell must strongly absorb the visible light and be transparent to the infrared light. Optical transmittance measurements of perovskite layers containing [...] Read more.
Cesium-containing triple cation perovskites are attracting significant attention as suitable tandem partners for silicon solar cells. The perovskite layer of a solar cell must strongly absorb the visible light and be transparent to the infrared light. Optical transmittance measurements of perovskite layers containing different cesium concentrations (0–15%) were carried out on purpose to evaluate the utility of the layers for the fabrication of monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The transmittance of the layers weakly depended on cesium concentration in the infrared spectral range, and it was more than 0.55 at 997 nm wavelength. It was found that perovskite solar cells containing 10% of cesium concentration show maximum power conversion efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Organic and Hybrid Thin Films for Solar Cells)
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