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- D'Amario, Luca
(författare)
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Discovering Hidden Traps : in Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles for Dye-Sensitised Photocathodes
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The finite nature of fossil fuels and their effect on the global climate, raised the need to find an alternative source of energy. This source should be environment compatible, cheap and abundant. The light coming from the Sun is a promising alternative. To be fruitful, the solar energy needs to be transformed in storable and transportable energy forms like electricityor fuels. Amongst the most studied techniques dye sensitised devices offer the possibility to be designed for both the scopes: solar-to-electricity and solar-to-fuel conversions. In these applications a photocathode and a photoanode, constructed by mesoporous semisconductor films sensitised with dyes, are placed in series with one another.It follows that the photocurrent generated by one electrode should be sustained by the photocurrent produced by the other electrode. At the moment there is a substantial difference between the conversion efficiencies and the photocurrent produced by photoanodes and photocathodes. In this thesis the reasons for this discrepancy are investigated. The main responsible of the bad performance is identified in the semiconductor normally used in photocathodes, Nickel Oxide (NiO). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to elucidate the electrical properties of mesoporous NiO films. The study revealed that NiO films are able to carry a large enough current to establish that conductivity is not a limiting factor. The recombination reactions were then accused as the cause of the power losses. A time resolved spectroscopic study revealed that NiO can host two kinds of holes. One of these holes is responsible for a fast dye-NiO recombination (100 ns) and the other one for a slow recombination (10 ms). A cell featuring only the slow dye-NiO recombination would possibly reach high efficiency. The characterisation of the species associated with these two holes was performed by density-of-state assisted spectroelectrochemistry. The holes were found to be trapped by Ni2+ and Ni3+ sites located on the NiO surface forming respectively Ni3+ and Ni4+ states. A study by fs and ns transient absorption spectroscopy revealed that Ni3+ sites can trap a hole in subpicosecond time scale and this hole relaxes into a Ni2+ trap in ns timescale. The control of the Ni2+/Ni3+ratio on the NiO surface was found to be crucial for a high cell photovoltage. In the thesis these results are discussed and used to propose an explanation and some solutions to the poor performance of NiO-based dye sensitised cells.
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| 2. |
- Jain, Sagar M., et al.
(författare)
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Green fabrication of stable lead-free bismuth based perovskite solar cells using a non-toxic solvent
- 2019
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Ingår i: Communications Chemistry. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2399-3669. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The very fast evolution in certified efficiency of lead-halide organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells to 24.2%, on par and even surpassing the record for polycrystalline silicon solar cells (22.3%), bears the promise of a new era in photovoltaics and revitalisation of thin film solar cell technologies. However, the presence of toxic lead and particularly toxic solvents during the fabrication process makes large-scale manufacturing of perovskite solar cells challenging due to legislation and environment issues. For lead-free alternatives, non-toxic tin, antimony and bismuth based solar cells still rely on up-scalable fabrication processes that employ toxic solvents. Here we employ non-toxic methyl-acetate solution processed (CH3NH3)(3)Bi2I9 films to fabricate lead-free, bismuth based (CH3NH3)(3)Bi2I9 perovskites on mesoporous TiO2 architecture using a sustainable route. Optoelectronic characterization, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy show that the route can provide homogeneous and good quality (CH3NH3)(3)Bi2I9 films. Fine-tuning the perovskite/hole transport layer interface by the use of conventional 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis (N,N'-di-p-methoxyphenylamino)-9,9'-spirbiuorene, known as Spiro-OMeTAD, and poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl - P3HT as hole transporting materials, yields power conversion efficiencies of 1.12% and 1.62% under 1 sun illumination. Devices prepared using poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl hole transport layer shown 300 h of stability under continuous 1 sun illumination, without the use of an ultra violet-filter.
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