Financial source: Junta de Andalucía Code: US-1263142

Plasma technology for the development of a new generation of hole transport layers in perovskite solar cells Principal Investigator: Juan Ramón Sánchez Valencia Period: 01-02-2020 / 31-12-2022 Research team: Ángel Barranco Quero, Juan Pedro Espinós Manzorro, Cristina Rojas Ruiz, José Cotrino Bautista

Third generation solar cells (SCs) are nanotechnological devices that directly convert sunlight into electricity and represent the paradigm of research in renewable energies, the use of which will depend on the energy future of the planet. Recently, a particular example of SCs containing an organometallic halide perovskite as a light absorber have attracted the attention of the scientific community due, above all, to their high efficiency and low cost. These characteristics make them a promising alternative to current cells (Si and chalcogenides). However, for the commercial realization of perovskite cells, it is necessary to achieve greater stability, durability and reproducibility. The most important advances have been achieved due to the intense research on the elements that integrate a SC: electron transport layer, perovskite and hole transport layer. Specifically, this latter element has been crucial for its evolution after the implementation of solid state hole conductors.
PlasmaCells pursuits to address for the first time the synthesis of a new family of hole transporters by vacuum and plasma techniques. These methodologies are industrially scalable and have great advantages over solution methodologies (the most used), among which stand out: their high versatility, composition and microstructural control, low cost, are environmental friendly since they do not require solvents, do not produce polluting emissions and are compatible with current semiconductor technology.
The main objective of PlasmaCells is the integration of these new plasma-processed hole transport layers into perovskite SCs. The importance of the project is based on recent results obtained by the Principal Investigator (PI) that demonstrate that the proposed approach may be one of the most promising ways to increase the stability, durability and reproducibility of these SCs, which currently represent the bottleneck that prevents their industrialization. It should be noted that there is no example in the literature of this synthetic approach for the development of hole transporters. It is expected that this opportunity will allow to demonstrate the advantages and versatility of this innovative methodology in a high-impact field, which is framed within the priority areas RIS3 Andalucía and in the PAIDI 2020 of sustainable growth, energy efficiency and renewable energies.

Financial source: Junta de Andalucía Code: P18-RT-2641 Acronym: TOLERANCE

Smart thermochromic coatings for smart windows and environmental control Principal Investigator: Ángel Barranco Quero y Alberto Palmero Acebedo Period: 01-01-2020 / 31-12-2022 Research team: Ana María Gómez Ramírez, Juan Ramón Sánchez Valencia, Víctor J. Rico Gavira, Rafael Álvarez Molina, Francisco Yubero Valencia, Juan Pedro Espinós Manzorro, Ana Isabel Borrás Martos, Agustín R. González-Elipe

The International Energy Agency considers that the systematic use of autonomous procedures for environmental control is one of the best technological approaches to minimize the energy employed to cool down buildings and other urban structures (it represents more than 40% of the global energy use in developed countries, much above the use in transportation, for instance), thus reducing the environmental impact and improving human comfort. TOLERANCE aims at introducing and developing a technology based on thermochromic materials in Andalusia as a smart and autonomous element to control the penetration of solar radiation in buildings. This project focusses on various applications such as smart windows in buildings and urban furniture, improvement of sanitary water systems or environmental control in greenhouses. While at low temperatures, a thermochromic coating transmits most solar spectrum, it selectively filters out the infrared region of this spectrum at high temperatures. In this research, TOLERANCE proposes several R+D actions to grow thin films with composition VO2, a thermochromic oxide with transition temperature near room temperature, on glass and plastic by means of industrial scalable techniques, as well as its nanostructuration, doping and integration in multilayer systems to improve its features and multifunctional properties.