Researchers improve the efficiency of flexible perovskite solar cells using VdW stacking
Researchers from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Korea University, Seoul National University and Korea's Frontier Energy Solution have demonstrated the feasibility of using the van der Waals stacking (vdWS) strategy to overcome the inefficiencies of flexible perovskite solar cells (f-PSCs).
The team explained that using halide perovskites can significantly increase the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of f-PSCs due to the low-temperature processability, ultrathin dimensions, low weight, and excellent optoelectronic properties of such cells. Several efforts were also made to develop the charge transporting layer (CTL), interface engineering between CTLs and perovskite, and highly-crystalline perovskite films on a flexible substrate, which further increased the f-PSC PCE to 22.44%. However, the efficiency is only 87% of the conventional glass-based PSCs. The f-PSC efficiency is affected by the physical process limitations caused by the flexible substrates' flexibility. Polymer substrates, such as polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) are typically used as flexible substrates for f-PSCs.