Grant: Alliance Grants

Perovskite solar cells (PSC) have emerged in the past decade as an exciting, low-cost, renewable-energy technology, and the efficiency with which they convert sunlight to electricity is now on par with silicon solar cells. However, the health and environmental impacts of the solvents involved in PSC processing remain a barrier for commercialization and large-scale production. The solvents, some of which are very hazardous, may be released into the atmosphere causing environmental and health impacts, condensed for energy recovery via incineration, which produces carbon emissions, or distilled for solvent recovery, which requires additional infrastructure and energy input. This project will focus on sustainable chemistry and engineering of PSCs via green-solvent and solvent-free approaches. Notably, this project will take an integrated, multidisciplinary approach that considers all key components of a PSC; the light-absorbing perovskite layer, charge-transport layers, and performance-enhancing additives. A novel characterization technique developed by German collaborator, Dr. Schmidt-Mende, will be used to provide fundamental insight into the formation of the PSC layers with green solvents. The manufacturing processes will be studied at the University of Waterloo and optimized to minimize harmful solvents and exhaust, and the performance of the PSCs will be studied and collaboratively optimized by the Canadian and German teams to achieve sustainable PSC manufacturing. The project will provide significant economic benefits to Canada via transfer of knowledge, intellectual property, and trained personnel to Canadian PSC companies, as well as environmental benefits to all Canadians in the form of low-cost renewable energy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.