Roll-to-roll perovskite solar cell could speed up solar scalability

According to the team, it has established a low-cost and scalable carbon ink formulation capable of unlocking the potential for perovskite solar cells to be manufactured at scale.

Using slot die coating in a roll-to-roll (R2R) process, academics from the university’s SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre have established a way to create ‘fully printable’ perovskite photovoltaics (PV), a term the team say is ‘often used but, until now, incorrect’.

Researchers searched for an alternative to the gold electrode that is typically applied using an expensive and slow evaporation process after the device has been printed.

Dr David Beynon, senior research officer at SPECIFIC, said: "The key was identifying the right solvent mix, one which dries as a film without dissolving the underlying layer.

"X-ray diffraction analysis showed carbon electrode ink is capable of this when formulated with an orthogonal solvent system.

"This innovative layer can be applied continuously and compatibly with the underlying layers at a low temperature and high speed."