Japanese manufacturer acquires rights to produce CIGS perovskite cell with 23.26% efficiency developed by HZB and Kaunas University

In September 2019, a research team led by Prof. Steve Albrecht from the HZB (in close collaboration with Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania) announced a tandem solar cell with certified efficiency of 23.26% that combines the semiconducting materials perovskite and CIGS. Now, the team shares further details on these cells and states that an unnamed Japanese manufacturer has acquired the rights to produce them.

The scientists said the self-assembling material used for the cell is made of molecules based on carbazole head groups with phosphonic acid anchoring groups, and consists of 1-2nm of self-assembled monolayers deposited on the surface of the perovskite by dipping it into a diluted solution.

'Developed monolayers can be called a perfect hole-transporting material as they are cheap, are formed by a scalable technique and are forming very good contact with perovskite materials,' the research team noted.

The scientists said the license to produce the material has been purchased by an unnamed Japanese company and they expect the two materials, dubbed 2PACz and MeO-2PACz, will soon be commercially available.