Thermosetting Polyurethane Resins as Low-Cost, Easily Scalable, and Effective Oxygen and Moisture Barriers for Perovskite Solar Cells

Bonomo, Matteo; Taheri, Babak; Bonandini, Luca; Castro‐Hermosa, Sergio; Brown, Thomas M.; Zanetti, Marco; Menozzi, Alberto; Barolo, Claudia; Brunetti, Francesca

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c17652

Cited by 41 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…In addition, the transmittance of the device was maintained close to 90%. Another recent and ground-breaking work has been reported by Bonomo et al, [424] in which the crucial role of polyurethane-based encapsulants for PSCs is illustrated. This underlines the relevance of polyurethane nanocomposites toward low-cost and long-life SCs.…”

Section: Sealant Filmsmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Cavinato

Fresta

Ferrara

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

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conditions. This makes difficult to further reduce the cost of electricity production. [7,8] Furthermore, although solar energy is a renewable source, it does not mean that any kind of photovoltaics (PV) is sustainable. For instance, silicon is an essential material in electronics and solar industries and, up to date, is irreplaceable. Despite its abundancy in Earth's crust, it is for the vast majority (80%) present as ferrosilicon, whose purification is expensive and highly pollutant. The production of 1 ton of silicon requires 6 tons of raw materials, almost 3 tons of Quartz, 1.5 tons of reducing agents, 1.5 tons of wood and 13 000 kWh of energy. [9,10] Therefore, in 2014 the EU commission included silicon metal in the critical raw material (CRM) list. [11] In this context, the third generation PV has reborn, offering cost-effective and efficient CRM-free devices with a lower reliance on the incident angle of light and integration in smart-end applications, like flexible and wearable devices, [12][13][14] fully transparent solar cells and windows, [15,16] and biocompatible devices. [17][18][19] The leading third generation SCs are organic solar cells (OSCs), [20][21][22] perovskite solar cells (PSCs), [23][24][25][26][27] and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). [28][29][30] Despite their versatile applications and high performances, sustainability still represents a major issue toward becoming an ideal energy technology in the mid-long term future. Among others, fullerene-based materials are toxic, [31] indium tin oxide (ITO) is brittle, chemically unstable, and expensive due to limited indium sources on Earth's crust. [32,33] Cobalt is also listed as CRM, [11] while cadmium, selenium, lead and ruthenium are toxic materials. [34,35] With regard to flexible devices, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the standard substrate; though its environmental footprint is critical and its nonbiodegradable properties lead to harmful effects in living organisms. [36] This has fueled a strong cooperation among the fields of engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics to discover new strategies for cost-effectiveness preparation and implementation of bio-derived materials in highly performing PVs.In general, this cooperation constitutes a part of the emerging and multidisciplinary field of biophotonics, [37] which involves biomedical optics, [38] living light, [39][40][41] biomimetic, biomaterials and bioengineered compounds, as well as fabrication/implementation methods applied to optoelectronics [42] and photonics, [43] among others. For instance, artificial lightning and biology have been recently merged with the implementation of cellulose, chitosan, silk, and fluorescent proteins as Accomplishing sustainability in optoelectronics, in general, and photovoltaics (PV), in particular, represents a crucial milestone in green photonics. Third generation PV technologies, such as organic solar cells (OSCs), perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have reached a mature age and are slowly making thei...

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Section: Sealant Filmsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…They are, however, often combined with nondegradable agents and polymers. [424] Thus, efforts are needed i) to optimize the new high performing encapsulants in the presence of biodegradable agents, and ii) to move toward fully bio-based solutions.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Cavinato

Fresta

Ferrara

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Consequently, encapsulation approaches relying on low-temperature lamination have been designed, e.g., two-step encapsulation process, thermoplastic polymeric films with integrated adhesives, or in situ-polymerized aliphatic polyurethane-based resins. [127,134] Laboratory PSCs usually are not encapsulated, with some exceptions. PET [49,65,67] is used as a barrier foil pre-laminated with a pressure sensitive acrylic adhesive.…”

Section: Encapsulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Perovskite Solar Cells with other Photovoltaics Technologies from the Point of View of Life Cycle Assessment

Vidal

Alberola-Borràs

Sánchez-Pantoja

et al. 2021

Adv Energy and Sustain Res

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Earth receives from the sun %432 EJ in 1 h, out of which 18 EJ per hour are reflected off from the surface and lost into space. [1] Despite the fact that this amount of energy is available to be converted to usable energy by photovoltaics (PVs), nowadays, this power technology is just converting about 4 EJ per year. [2] Converting all this incident energy would suppose nearly 158 000 EJ per year, which greatly exceeds the 585 EJ of primary energy (PE) consumed in 2017. [3] This fact makes solar power technologies converting directly incident sunlight into usable electrical energy, hence, PVs, powerful candidates to ease the environmental issues derived from the present system of energy production. However, the potential of PV to provide electricity to our societies in a postcarbon energy system is limited by a Shockley-Queisser limit of about 33%, [4] together with land and sources availability.There are several PV technologies, each with a different degree of maturity. Crystalline Si PVs represent the most deployed type with 95% of the market share, 75% in monocrystalline silicon (Mono-Si), with a growing share, and 20% for multicrystalline silicon (Multi-Si), with a continuously declining share. [5] Mono-Si and Multi-Si present moderately high operating efficiencies between 20% and 22%, a deep industrial implementation constructed in parallel with the development of the electronic industry and low toxicity. [6] Another key advantage of this technology in a large production scenario is that it can be entirely produced with relatively abundant materials. [7] The only argument against crystalline Si as the ideal PV material is the chemistries required for purification, reduction, and crystallization of pure silicon from sand, which are highly energy

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“…[355,356] It is thus important to improve not only the intrinsic stability of PSCs but also the effectiveness of the encapsulating system hand in hand. [357][358][359] Degradation of halide perovskite during the curing process of some encapsulant materials was reported, [360,361] urging the establishment of selection standards in choosing suitable encapsulants, which can be summarized as follows: 1) chemically inert with halide perovskite, 2) solvent-less deposition or, if necessary, use of a less-damaging solvent system toward all the PSCs components, 3) low curing temperature <150 C, and 4) low moisture ingression through the encapsulant. Based on these criteria, parafilm as solvent-less and low-temperature-processing encapsulant was developed, [361] showing 90% retention of initial PCE after 1000 h, due to both the improved hydrophobicity and the chemical inertness between parafilm and PSCs.…”

Section: Humidity-induced Degradationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Perspective on the Commercial Viability of Perovskite Solar Cells

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have received a large amount of research funds due to their potential as a frontrunner in a new generation of solar cells; consequently, the desire to commercialize this technology is mounting. In this roadmap, the knowledge and the technological gaps between laboratory and industry are critically analyzed from the perspective of 5S criteria (Stability, Safety, Sustainability, Scalability, and Storage). To avoid any favoritism in the arguments toward commercializing this technology, herein, the average parameters of PSCs (photoconversion efficiency, durability, cost, manufacturability, and sustainability) estimated from previous studies are analyzed and discussed. Unique opportunities for PSCs in their current stage of achievements are identified, where application‐driven, instead of performance‐driven, developments are shown to favor their commercialization. Efforts required to improve the average performance of PSCs to state‐of‐the‐art levels are also identified and discussed.

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Thermosetting Polyurethane Resins as Low-Cost, Easily Scalable, and Effective Oxygen and Moisture Barriers for Perovskite Solar Cells

Cited by 41 publications

References 72 publications

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Comparison of Perovskite Solar Cells with other Photovoltaics Technologies from the Point of View of Life Cycle Assessment

A Perspective on the Commercial Viability of Perovskite Solar Cells

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