Perovskite solar cells are cheap to manufacture and highly efficient, but their internal contact layers degrade within months, making them commercially useless. The problem lies at the microscopic interfaces where the perovskite material meets the charge-transport layers that carry electricity out of the cell. These contacts develop defects, lose chemical stability, and peel apart over time. Current approaches fix only one of these problems at a time. This project will design and synthesise a new class of charge-selective molecules that can simultaneously patch defects, speed up charge transfer, form a protective barrier, and hold the contact stack together. Unlike existing materials, these molecules will be tailored specifically to perovskite chemistry and will incorporate functional linker units to address all interface failures at once. If successful, the research could remove the main barrier to commercialising perovskite photovoltaics. That would mean solar panels that are both cheaper to produce and as durable as today’s silicon cells, potentially reshaping the economics of solar energy and accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels. The project will also follow a complete set of international stability testing protocols, producing reliable data on how long these cells truly last—information the field currently lacks.
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Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as the next-generation photovoltaic (PV) technology that offers high performance and low projected manufacturing costs. However, the current perovskite/charge-transport-layer (CTL) contacts lack the required long-term structural and performance stability, which hinders the market entry of perovskite-based PVs. The instability of perovskite/contact interfaces is a multifaceted challenge that requires a holistic solution to the interfacial defect, charge transfer, chemical stability, and delamination problems. To overcome this challenge, it is imperative to design novel charge-selective molecules that can simultaneously passivate perovskite/contact interface defects, facilitate charge transport, form a stable barrier layer, and preserve the integrity of the contact stack. Therefore, this proposal aims to synthesize a new class of charge-selective molecules and use them to design highly stable perovskite/CTL contacts that will enable the fabrication of high-efficiency and long-term stable PSCs. Unlike existing CTLs, the newly developed charge-selective molecules will be perovskite-specific and incorporate functional linker units, targeting to address all perovskite/contact interface problems simultaneously. Different from the existing literature studies, this project will follow not a specific but a complete set of the International Summit on Organic Photovoltaic Stability protocols to reveal the 'true' reliability of perovskite/contact interfaces. The holistic approach of this project, coupled with extensive characterizations, will generate new knowledge to address the long-lasting stability issue of PSCs, thereby enabling the commercialization of this promising technology. Overall, the advanced device concepts that will be developed could pave the way to the next generation of PV technologies beyond 2030.
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