Interface Engineering in Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells

Dear Colleagues,

Hybrid organic/inorganic solar cells, such as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs), are photovoltaic (PV) technologies that hold promise for conventional and advanced applications, by offering enticing prospects in the quest for efficiency and low costs.

In DSCs and PSCs, the main physical processes, such as the light absorption and the charge transport are carried out by different materials within the cells. Due to this particular feature, such PV technologies make use of the synergetic matching between device’s constituent layers that take places at the layers’ interfaces. The possibility to understand the physical and chemical properties of the interface materials is the reading key to exploit the potentialities of the PSC and DSC technologies. A proper tuning of the device’s interfaces has the capability to improve the power conversion efficiencies by avoiding charge recombination and improving charge extraction. Furthermore, interfaces control the stability of the device. Specific modification of interfaces can reduce material degradation, avoid ion diffusion and improve mechanical stiffness, all phenomena that directly affect the stability of the cells. A fundamental role of interfaces is played in the device scaling up to module size. Here, the increased cell area emphasizes the mismatch that could occur between constituting materials if interfaces are not properly designed.

Currently, there are several solutions to master interface, such as (but not limited to): i) chemical modification of interface by adding functional molecules or compound; ii) physical treatment of the interface with plasma or ultra-violet light; and iii) interlayers formed by two-dimensional materials such as graphene, MoS₂, WS₂, etc.

In this context, the main aim of this Special Issue on “Interface Engineering in Dye Sensitized and Perovskite Solar Cells” is to provide the current state-of-the-art in terms of theory, processing, and applications of interface engineering approach to boost DSC and PSC efficiency, their stability and to permit an effective scaling up to module size. This issue will present a detailed overview of methodologies for interface engineering in DSCs and PSCs, their characterization and application, identifying, at the same time, future research directions and developments.

We are pleased to invite you to submit manuscripts for the Special Issue on “Interface Engineering in Dye Sensitized and Perovskite Solar Cells” in the form of full research papers, communications, and review articles. We look forward to your contribution in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Aldo Di Carlo
Dr. Antonio Agresti
Dr. Francesco Bonaccorso
Guest Editors

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