Low-Temperature Fabrication of Flexible, High-Efficiency Perovskite Photovoltaic Modules for Energy Harvesting Applications

Through the proposed STTR program, NanoSonic and Virginia Tech will fabricate flexible perovskite solar modules (12 x 12) that are capable of providing conversion efficiencies greater than 20% under AM 1.5G standard solar spectrum, and which demonstrate stability against temperatures up to 50C and relative humidity up to 80%. The photovoltaic market is dominated by crystalline silicon solar panels that have efficiencies of ~10-15%. The fragile properties of the silicon solar panel, however, limit its application for energy harvesting in wearables. Perovskite solar cells, made by solution-casting organometal halide perovskites as the light absorber, have resulted in an unprecedented increase power conversion efficiency (from 4% to 22.1%). Studies thus far on PSC have focused on small, laboratory-scale (~0.1 cm2) prototypes, with few reported results on the performance of perovskite solar modules. Together, NanoSonic and Virginia Tech will translate the lab-scale perovskite solar cells into a large-scale production process for flexible, high-efficiency (>20%) perovskite solar modules suitable for use in wearable energy harvesting materials.