Journal article 196 views 12 downloads
Manufacturing planar perovskite solar cells in dusty environments
,
Tom Dunlop ,
James McGettrick ,
Kris Seunarine,
Eifion Jewell ,
Matthew Davies ,
Matt Carnie ,
Trystan Watson
Communications Materials, Volume: 6, Start page: 266
Swansea University Authors:
Kathryn Lacey, Ershad Parvazian, Sarah-Jane Dunlop-Potts , Tom Dunlop , James McGettrick , Kris Seunarine, Eifion Jewell , Matthew Davies , Matt Carnie , Trystan Watson
-
PDF | Version of Record
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Download (6.75MB)
DOI (Published version): 10.1038/s43246-025-00993-y
Abstract
Production of silicon solar cells necessitates cleanrooms to prevent dust contamination, which can lead to defects and reduced performance. This poses challenges for scaling up manufacturing and improving accessibility for device manufacture in less developed economies as cleanrooms represent an exp...
| Published in: | Communications Materials |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2662-4443 |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2025
|
| Online Access: |
Check full text
|
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70924 |
| Abstract: |
Production of silicon solar cells necessitates cleanrooms to prevent dust contamination, which can lead to defects and reduced performance. This poses challenges for scaling up manufacturing and improving accessibility for device manufacture in less developed economies as cleanrooms represent an expensive and energy intensive investment, and so it is key that the next generation of solar technology differentiates from this. Perovskite has the potential to be far more robust and resilient to defects caused by dust particles, which then impacts on the capital cost of the equipment required for manufacture. This study evaluates the effects of non-conductive dust on planar perovskite devices, testing two different device structures with efficiencies exceeding 16%, testing an active area of 0.09 cm2. The setup simulated dust settling during the manufacturing process, expecting compromised performance in contaminated devices. Results revealed that devices with dust performed similarly to clean ones, with only limited losses in some performance metrics. High tolerance to contamination suggests that perovskite technology may remain operational under less controlled environments. These findings point toward a more accessible fabrication route reducing dependence on expensive cleanroom conditions typically required for silicon-based technologies. |
|---|---|
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
This work was made possible by the funding supplied by the STRIP5 Prosperity Partnership [EP/X025217/1]. Additional support was received from the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council Programme Grant ATIP (Application Targeted and Integrated Photovoltaics) [EP/T028513/1], and the Advanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) facility at Swansea University which was funded in part by the EPSRC [EP/M028267/1]. |
| Start Page: |
266 |