All-Inorganic Perovskites/Chalcogenides Multijunction Solar Cells

Background

All-inorganic perovskite solar cells (AI-PSCs) have emerged as a promising technology in the field of photovoltaics, offering significant advancements in efficiency and stability.  Perovskite materials as solar energy absorbers are traditionally developed with hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites.  These types of hybrid materials demonstrate remarkable stability; however, their susceptibility to thermal and environmental degradation due to the organic components hinder long-term application.  In response, all-inorganic perovskites became a desirable solution.  These AI-PSCs are free of organic cations, resulting in superior thermal and chemical stability, making them durable under real-world conditions.  Although, the AI-PSCs do have limited power conversion efficiency.

Additionally, chalcogenides thin film solar cell technology has been developed.  These chalcogenide materials, such as Cadmium telluride (CdTe), have bandgap of approximately 1.5 eV and can achieve a power conversion efficiency of approximately 23%.  However, the toxicity of Cd and the scarcity of Te significantly limit large-scale manufacturing.

What is needed is a method of combining the advantages of both all-inorganic perovskite and chalcogenide materials into a multijunction solar cell. 

Invention Description

A researcher at Arizona State University has developed a tandem multijunction solar cell utilizing all-inorganic perovskite solar cells and chalcogenide materials.  By combining the wide bandgap all-inorganic perovskite with middle and narrower band gap chalcogenide materials, the resulting solar cells have bandgaps tuned or engineered to maximize the solar spectrum absorption.

Potential Applications:

  • Solar energy
  • Solar cell manufacturing

Benefits and Advantages:

  • Enhanced long-term photo- and thermal-stability of perovskite solar cells (particularly when compared to the hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells)
  • Reduction in cost per watt of solar energy
  • Easy incorporation into existing solar cell manufacturing line using thin film deposition techniques
Patent Information: