Interface Engineering for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Based Solar Cells

Dear Colleagues,

Solar energy conversion represents one of the better options to replace carbon-based technology. Among a wide variety of available technologies, well established silicon solar cells entail almost 90% of the up-scale installed technology. Nevertheless, from a decade ago perovskite solar cells abruptly came onto the scene in the research community as an impressive material that triggered the power energy conversion from 3.9% to over 25%, being very close to silicon efficiencies.

Its easy and cost-effective fabrication process as well as its tuneable opto-electronic properties make perovskite material very suitable to solar energy conversion. Although it presents an amphiphilic character and long carrier transport, usually two selective layers (hole and electron) are deposited to assist charge extraction. Therefore, the proper selection of those selective contacts contributes not only in the improvement of the final performance of the solar cells but also the intrinsic stability of the device. The possibility to tune the band-gap of the perovskite material, affect the energy alignment between the charge selective layers, therefore a modification in the former materials should be considered. In addition, the layered structure requires a good connection and a perfect energy level alignment between layers in order to reduce the interface recombination. In this regard, the use of nanocomposite materials allows a personalized mixture that reduces recombination processes.

We invite researchers to contribute to the Special Issue on interface engineering as a method to improve efficiency and long-term stability in perovskite solar cells, which is intended to serve as a unique multidisciplinary forum covering broad aspects of science, technology and the application of perovskite solar cells as an efficient energy harvesting technology.

The potential topics include, but are not limited to:

-    Synthesis and growth of new compositions of perovskite material

-    Deep understanding of degradation mechanisms in real operational conditions

-    Characterisation of device interfaces by spectroscopic, microscopic, and other advanced techniques

-    Up-scaling techniques towards industrial application of perovskite-based devices

Dr. Manuel Salado Manzorro
Dr. Clara Aranda Alonso
Dr. Laura Calió
Guest Editors

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• interface engineering
• stability
• perovskite solar cell
• charge-extraction
• in-situ techniques
• solar energy