The idea
The development of cost-efficient solar cells is one of the most important challenges to increase energy production from renewable sources and to fight climate change, two task of outstanding importance, as recognized by the mission M2C2 of the PNRR and in COP26 conference.
The devices
Organic (OSC) and perovskite (PSC) solar cells are potentially well suited for large-scale commercialization, because of their low-cost, lower sensitivity to environmental conditions, and good performance in low-light conditions, being suitable for sustainable small- and large-scale electronic devices, and energetically self-sufficient buildings.
The problem
We plan to integrate theoretical and experimental studies for achieving a comprehensive understanding of the most common decay paths in OSCs, leading to a rational design of new materials with enhanced efficiencies. The integration of different expertise will enable paying the same attention to different facets of the problem: the morphology of the relevant interfaces, their electronic structure at an atomistic level, and the computation of the rates of the elementary processes involved, e.g. charge separation, charge recombination, triplet formation. The latter point is a relevant novelty, which has been largely overlooked in the current literature, mostly focused on energy level alignment rather than rate constant ratios. This idea will be used to study two types of devices.
The goal #1
We will synthesize novel non-fullerene acceptors (NFA), characterized by a significant absorption in the NIR zone of the optical spectrum. The new compounds will be tested in devices fabricated using commercial polymeric materials as donor materials, featuring complementary absorption spectrum in order to exploit the whole solar bandwidth in OSC. Theoretical predictions of the efficiency of these materials will be corroborated by experimental fabrication and characterization of the devices.
The goal #2
A PSC exploiting crystals of a photoactive protein as active containers for perovskite will be developed by microfluidic approaches. Such PSC could be fitted in flexible cells because crystals will be supported by Lipidic Cubic Phase and could provide a green alternative to traditional photosensitizer. Perovskite/protein structure and energy transfer mechanisms between these components of PSC will be analyzed by structural and theoretical studies.