Solar cells articles within Nature Materials

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  • News & Views |

    The use of a spectroscopy technique called pump–push–probe electro-absorption provides insight into the energetic landscape of nanostructured donor–acceptor interfaces in bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells.

    • Natalie Banerji

  • Article |

    A pump–push–probe time-resolved technique is developed to characterize the dynamics of photoexcitations at buried, disordered interfaces. Applied to organic bulk heterojunctions, the method provides insight on charge separation in photovoltaic films.

    • Andreas C. Jakowetz
    • , Marcus L. Böhm
    •  & Richard H. Friend

  • News & Views |

    One of the most salient features of hybrid lead halide perovskites is the extended lifetime of their photogenerated charge carriers. This property has now been shown experimentally to originate from a slow, thermally activated recombination process.

    • Jacques-E. Moser

  • Letter |

    The use of monolayers of hexagonal boron nitride as the cationic diffusion barrier and graphene aerogel mixed with spiro-OMeTAD as the hole transport layer allows the fabrication of graded bandgap perovskite solar cells with high efficiency.

    • Onur Ergen
    • , S. Matt Gilbert
    •  & Alex Zettl

  • News & Views |

    Greater rigidity of conjugated polymer backbones increases their light-harvesting ability, making them better performers in solar-cell applications.

    • John Grey

  • Commentary |

    In the last few years, the advent of metal halide perovskite solar cells has revolutionized the prospects of next-generation photovoltaics. As this technology is maturing at an exceptional rate, research on its environmental impact is becoming increasingly relevant.

    • Aslihan Babayigit
    • , Anitha Ethirajan
    •  & Bert Conings

  • Editorial |

    To aid the reproducibility of published results for photovoltaic devices, from now on we will ask authors of relevant manuscripts to complete a checklist of key technical information that must be reported.

  • News & Views |

    Ultrathin, flexible and lightweight perovskite solar cells with improved stability in air can now power model airplanes for several hours.

    • Michele Sessolo
    •  & Henk J. Bolink

  • News & Views |

    Now that certified energy conversion efficiencies for perovskite solar cells are above 20%, researchers are exploring other critical areas, such as understanding device hysteresis and film growth, as well as the replacement of lead and the development of tandem cell stacks. Cell stability remains a crucial issue.

    • Martin A. Green
    •  & Thomas Bein

  • News & Views |

    The migration of ions under the effect of an external electric field locally modifies the doping of organometal halide perovskite films. This is used to reversibly switch the photocurrent direction in very simple photovoltaic architectures.

    • Nam-Gyu Park

  • Editorial |

    Staggering increases in the performance of organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells have renewed the interest in these materials. However, further developments and the support from academic and industrial partners will hinge on the reporting of accurate efficiency values.

  • News & Views |

    The dream of printing highly efficient solar cells is closer than ever to being realized. Solvent engineering has enabled the deposition of uniform perovskite semiconductor films that yield greater than 15% power-conversion efficiency.

    • Michael D. McGehee

  • Commentary |

    The rise of metal halide perovskites as light harvesters has stunned the photovoltaic community. As the efficiency race continues, questions on the control of the performance of perovskite solar cells and on its characterization are being addressed.

    • Michael Grätzel

  • News & Views |

    Mastering the impact of surface chemistry on the electronic properties and stability of colloidal quantum dots enables the realization of architectures with enhanced photovoltaic performance and air stability.

    • Delia J. Milliron

  • Article |

    The performance of solar cells based on organic–inorganic perovskites strongly depends on the device architecture and processing conditions. It is now shown that solvent engineering enables the deposition of very dense perovskite layers on mesoporous titania, leading to photovoltaic devices with a high light-conversion efficiency and no hysteresis.

    • Nam Joong Jeon
    • , Jun Hong Noh
    •  & Sang Il Seok

  • Letter |

    Fabricating low-temperature solution-processed solar cells with good power-conversion efficiency and stability in ambient conditions has proved challenging. The use of ligands that protect colloidal quantum dots from degradation in air and tune their energy levels is now shown to be a viable approach for the realization of spin-coated solar cells with very high efficiency.

    • Chia-Hao M. Chuang
    • , Patrick R. Brown
    •  & Moungi G. Bawendi

  • Letter |

    A strategy to overcome the maximum theoretical efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells is to realize stacked, multi-junction cells that are used under highly concentrated light. Now, a printing-based, scalable approach for the assembly of multi-junction solar cells in concentrator photovoltaic modules that reach a high power conversion efficiency is reported.

    • Xing Sheng
    • , Christopher A. Bower
    •  & John A. Rogers

  • News & Views |

    A study on carrier-collection efficiency in various organic photovoltaic systems now reveals that ultrafast relaxation of photoexcitations within the manifold of charge-transfer states does not impede mobile charge carrier generation.

    • Daniel Moses

  • News & Views |

    Mixed-halide organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites are reported to display electron–hole diffusion lengths over 1 μm. This observation provides important insight into the charge-carrier dynamics of this class of semiconductors and increases the expectations for highly efficient and cheap solar cells.

    • Maria Antonietta Loi
    •  & Jan C. Hummelen

  • Article |

    The efficiency of organic blends used for photovoltaic applications depends on their ability to convert photoexcited charges into free holes and electrons. It is now demonstrated that the lowermost energetic states formed at the donor/acceptor interface can reach conversion efficiencies close to 100%, and therefore do not behave as traps for charge carriers.

    • Koen Vandewal
    • , Steve Albrecht
    •  & Alberto Salleo

  • Letter |

    Compared with their rigid counterparts, thin-film solar cells grown on flexible substrates usually display lower power-conversion efficiencies. Now, the application of a post-deposition alkaline treatment that modifies the chemical composition of the surfaces of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films reduces optical losses in these flexible photovoltaic architectures. Furthermore, efficiencies comparable to solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon are achieved.

    • Adrian Chirilă
    • , Patrick Reinhard
    •  & Ayodhya N. Tiwari

  • News & Views |

    Semiconductor devices that convert light of arbitrary polarization into a flow of electron spin have now been demonstrated using an approach that is applicable to any semiconductor material.

    • Ron Jansen

  • Article |

    Photoelectrochemical water-splitting is a promising route for the renewable production of hydrogen, but trade-offs between photoelectrode stability and efficiency remain problematic. A metal–oxide–semiconductor photoelectrode architecture demonstrates stable and efficient water splitting using narrow-bandgap semiconductors. Substantial improvement in the performance of Si-based photocathodes is achieved by combining a high-quality SiO2 layer and bilayer metal catalysts.

    • Daniel V. Esposito
    • , Igor Levin
    •  & A. Alec Talin

  • News & Views |

    Excitation of organic donor–acceptor systems with high-energy light can produce hot charge-transfer states that are delocalized across the heterojunction and readily dissociate. Two studies now reveal the dynamics of this process and pave the way towards unravelling the details of the molecular landscape that favours fast photocarrier generation.

    • Carlos Silva

  • Letter |

    The standard picture of organic photovoltaics predicts that excitons, which are created under light irradiation, thermalize before dissociation into free electrons and holes. Experimental results and calculations on a low-bandgap polymer–fullerene blend now illustrate the dynamics of hot charge-transfer states and their contribution to charge generation in bulk heterojunctions.

    • G. Grancini
    • , M. Maiuri
    •  & G. Lanzani

  • Article |

    Photocurrent generation in organic solar cells relies on the dissociation of excitons into free electrons and holes at donor/acceptor heterointerfaces. Femtosecond spectroscopy and non-adiabatic simulations on the phthalocyanine–fullerene model system now reveal the relaxation dynamics of hot charge-transfer excitons in this process.

    • Askat E. Jailaubekov
    • , Adam P. Willard
    •  & X-Y. Zhu

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