UNIQUE brings together renowned European research centers and strategic industrial partners whom identified carbon-based perovskite solar cells to be the most promising variant of the technology for industrialization.

Solaronix also single out carbon-based perovskite solar cell technology several years ago and is working at its industrialization since then.

UNIQUE will be under the coordination of Fraunhofer ISE, and members of the consortium include:

- Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain),
- EPFL-Valais (Switzerland),
- Fraunhofer ISE (Germany),
- LITEN at CEA Tech (France),
- LEPMI at Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France),
- CHOSE at Università degli studi di Roma Tor Vergata (Italy),
- SPECIFIC at Swansea University (UK),
- Dyenamo (Sweden),
- and Solaronix (Switzerland).

Perovskite solar cells have nowadays reached record efficiencies comparable to those of silicon wafer-based solar cells at the laboratory level. The former have however yet to be scaled up without compromising overall performance. UNIQUE aims at bringing this emerging photovoltaic technology to a truly exploitable industrial level, thanks to the wide range of expertise gathered by the partnership.

Among the different perovskite solar cell architectures reported so far, the printable carbon-based approach is the most promising in terms of ease of manufacturing, long-term stability, environmental impact, and carbon footprint.
Indeed, this architecture solely uses ultra low-cost materials, and rely on simple manufacturing methods like printing.

Carbon-based perovskite solar cells can be therefore produced with much fewer energy and at minimal capital expenditure unlike incumbent photovoltaic technologies. All of this combined puts carbon-based perovskite solar cells in a good position of a localized production, in reply to the imperative of local energy supply.

Solaronix naturally welcomes the new consortium and our whole team feels honored to work with such ideal partners.

An open scientific symposium is planned at the end of the project to disseminate results and to involve possible stakeholders.

Our focus at Solaronix has always been making photovoltaics more affordable, by leveraging simple wet deposition techniques as opposed to costly vacuum based evaporation processes.

So far our screen-printing inks have been a good demonstration. With the introduction of our new slot-die coating inks for not less than all the electrode layers found in monolithic perovskite solar cells we are now going a step further:

• Ti-Nanoxide BL150/DC, for slot-die coating of compact titania
• Ti-Nanoxide T165/DC, for slot-die coating of mesoporous titania
• Zr-Nanoxide ZT/DC, for slot-die coating of mesoporous zirconia
• Elcocarb B/DC, for slot-die coating of carbon contact layer

All of the above inks are now available from our public catalog. Our slot-die coating formulations are easily recognizable by their /DC suffix.

Slot-die coating is certainly the simplest and fastest of all wet deposition techniques, hereby enabling high throughput manufacturing and reducing production costs. It is very well suited for both roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet fabrications.

Although slot-die coating has repetitively been mentioned as a desirable production technique in recent papers^{1 2 3}, Solaronix is the first to demonstrate the slot-die coating of the entire monolithic perovskite solar cell structure.

This represents a remarkable achievement towards perovskite solar cell industrialization. Indeed, developing inks forming homogeneous films ranging from a few tens of nanometer to several micron thick has been quite a challenge.

Fortunately, we were not alone in that task. Our slot-die coating inks are the result of a close and extremely fruitful collaboration with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), under the funding of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).

We take the occasion to publicly thank all of the people inside and outside Solaronix who made this feat possible.

What’s more, flexible substrates made of plastic materials are often used in the quest for novel photovoltaic technologies and easier manufacturing processes. With that however, comes the requirement to limit treatments to relatively low temperatures.

With that in mind, Solaronix is now introducing two new low temperature processable pastes for the deposition of carbon and silver layers.

Elcocarb B-L/SP, Low Temperature Carbon Paste

Back in 2015, Solaronix was the first to release a carbon paste for the deposition of highly conductive carbon layers specifically for perovskite photovoltaic *applications*. Like most screen-printing inks, Elcocarb B/SP is requiring high temperatures to obtain the desired carbon layers. This treatment is likely not compatible with the presence of perovskite or functional organic materials prior to carbon deposition.

With the new Elcocarb B-L/SP, the deposition of conductive carbon layers can now be realized with a low curing temperature. Thanks to this, a conductive carbon layer can be applied right onto a pre-existing perovskite layer, or a hole transport material.

Elcocarb B-L/SP makes possible the exploration of a whole new class of perovskite solar cell architectures, including on flexible substrates, without sacrificing the use of low-cost carbon materials and simple deposition techniques.

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Elcosil S-L/SP, Low Temperature Silver Paste

Silver inks have been employed in the photovoltaic industry for ages to deposit current collectors, and hereby enhance the photovoltaic output of solar cells.

Our Elcosil product line of silver pastes is now enriched with Elcosil S-L/SP, a low temperature processable ink for the deposition of silver contacts by screen-printing or blade coating.

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The event is free of charge, but registration is required. Please head over to the following page before September 24th to register: www.empa-akademie.ch/indupero

Please come to see us and meet with the other key players in the field!

From the organizers:

Topic

Thin film PV technology based on perovskite absorbers has been identified as the most promising solar technology for energy harvesting due to its high efficiency, low energy impact during fabrication as well as potentially low production cost. The yearly number of publications exceeding one thousand in 2015 witnesses the formidable research effort dedicated to this rising technology. Industrial efforts to realize technological implementation are however still at the beginning leaving a rather untouched field for tomorrow’s manufacturers. This workshop is aimed at gaining insight into the vision, strategies and development track of the most advanced players in the field of large area module manufacturers.

Target Audience

With the workshop we intend to update and inform present and future stakeholders and gather persons willing to support this fascinating endeavour. Scientists and Engineers in the field of solar cells as well as industrialists and investors being interested in this rising field.

We will be holding an exhibition booth during the conference, where we intend to show some of our perovskite solar module prototypes, snatched from our development line. This will also be the opportunity to get your hands on our laboratory perovskite solar cell electrodes aimed at facilitating research and development in the field.

PSCO-2018 is off to a good start, with over 500 participants already registered. That’s definitely an event that perovskite experts and enthusiasts cannot miss. Save the date, PSCO-2018 will be held in EPFL from September 30th to October 2nd 2018.

We are looking to meeting you there!

Photo credit: © Alain Herzog

On the laboratory scale, our carbon-based monolithic perovskite solar cells exhibit rising efficiencies above 14%, hereby witnessing that important performance improvement are achievable with this emerging photovoltaic technology.

The stability assessment started more than a year ago shows our early perovskite solar module prototypes exposed to continuous simulated full sunlight can withstand over 10’000 h with nearly unchanged performance. This is the equivalent of a 10 year operation in real life. Deeper understanding revealed extra-ordinary 2D/3D structures are at play ¹.

Solaronix’ perovskite solar technology is moreover showing impressive resistance against heat and damp, as we discovered that such treatment can reveal beneficial even to non-encapsulated devices ².

Tremendous efforts are also being made on refining manufacturing techniques to make these carbon-based monolithic perovskite solar cells the most affordable thin-film photovoltaic technology. Inkjet printing is certainly a good example of a cutting-edge industrial technique we have put to good use in this application to infiltrate solar cells with perovskite ink ^{3 4}.

We are eager to report later on other major progresses we are making in this direction, thanks to close collaborations with prestigious academies and research institutions including: Aalto University, CSEM, EMPA, EPFL, Flamac, Hasselt University, and IMEC.

The greatest news is however for our customers who can now benefit from the materials we developed to make these accomplishments possible.

New Screen-Printing Pastes
for Monolithic Perovskite Solar Cells

All of the screen-printing pastes used to build up monolithic electrodes are now available from Solaronix with the following products:

Of course, our fluoride-doped tin oxide coated substrates remain available, and proved themselves once again very adapted to receiving monolithic structures with the above pastes. Feel free to inquire for our LASER patterning service to get them ready for your own electrode making.

Monolithic Perovskite Solar Cell Kit

Monolithic Perovskite Solar Cell Kit, box of 18 electrodes.

Even better, Solaronix now supplies ready-to-use carbon-based monolithic electrodes, as well as the corresponding perovskite precursor solution specifically formulated for this structure.

The kit is conveniently completed by adhesive polyimide masks which prevent the perovskite ink to overflow outside the cell’s active area during annealing. A must-have for cleaner and safer experimentation with perovskite cells.

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With the Monolithic Perovskite Solar Cell Kit and all of our dedicated screen-printing pastes, there is really no excuses not to work on the most promising perovskite solar technology!

Coined “The Next Big Thing in Solar Energy” by X-Prize CEO Peter Diamandis at the Abundance 360 summit, perovskite photovoltaic technology had yet to be proven stable, performant, and scalable to an industrial level. Solaronix is announcing today a major breakthrough in perovskite industrialization, with the fabrication of efficient large-area all-printed perovskite solar modules.

For the first time in the industry, 500 cm² perovskite solar modules were produced using simple and ubiquitous printing techniques, avoiding otherwise commonly used and expensive methods such as chemical vapor deposition or metal evaporation. Printing has proven a reliable technique for Dye Solar Cell panel production in the company’s earlier achievements, further developed for this new application, it now makes the use of perovskite safe and clean. Unlike other perovskite solar technologies, Solaronix’ solar modules are solely made of low-cost and widely available materials produced and formulated in-house, such as ceramics, and of course, perovskite.

Arriving at the conclusion of a two year Swiss Confederation’s Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) project with academic partners at EPFL and Aalto University, this pioneering work allowed Solaronix to transpose laboratory perovskite solar cell samples of ~1 cm² to a more significant area hundreds of times larger, with no performance drop. The solar modules produced and tested at the company’s premises already reached 12% solar-to-power efficiency, comparable to other thin-film photovoltaic technologies.

Continuous 24/7 sun-like illumination evidenced the unprecedented stability of these solar modules, sustaining 5’000 h and still counting. That’s so far a 5 year equivalent to outdoor conditions. Thermal stress also revealed Solaronix’ perovskite solar modules behave ideally in the 50-70°C range, temperatures typically reached under sun exposure, in contrast to silicon solar cells which suffer a significant performance drop with increasing temperatures.

Solaronix is the first company to demonstrate stable and performant perovskite solar modules combining low-cost materials and scalable industrial techniques, paving the way to the commercialization of a disruptive thin-film perovskite photovoltaic technology.

About Solaronix

Being a pioneer in next generation photovoltaics, Solaronix started with the development of Dye Solar Cell technology, leading to the world’s first colorful and transparent 300 m² facade on EPFL’s SwissTech Convention Center in 2014. Strong of this past experience, the company now focuses on Perovskite Solar Cell technology, and has the ambition to disrupt solar energy with the most effective renewable source of electricity. Meanwhile, Solaronix continues to supply specialty chemicals and components to the various research centers, academic laboratories, and pioneering enterprises working on next generation photovoltaic technologies around the world.

Firing our Elcocarb products at 400°C leads to a remarkably highly conductive, hydrophobic and non-metallic layer that remains porous. The chemical inertness of this layer enables a broad range of material compatibility with no risk of corrosion.

Carbon films obtained from Elcocarb B/SP and Elcocarb G/SP demonstrate excellent adhesion on a variety of substrates, such as coated glasses and metal oxide layers. They are ideal for monolithic assemblies in conjunction with our Ti-Nanoxide and Zr-Nanoxide products.

Those carbon layers also feature a very good electron transfer rate to iodide-based Dye Solar Cell electrolytes such as our Iodolyte and Mosalyte products, as well as towards Hole Transport Materials and Perovskite layers found in solid-state solar cells.

Elcocarb B/SP and Elcocarb G/SP are available for retail on our online shop, from 10 g and above.

NEW IN OUR LABWARE ITEMS

Photo credit for Elcocarb B/SP: Syed Ghufran Hashmi – Aalto University

The all new Ti-Nanoxide BL/SC, Ti-Nanoxide T300/SC, and Ti-Nanoxide T600/SC are respectively designed for the formation of compact titania layers, 300 nm thick mesoporous titania layers, and 600 nm thick mesoporous titania layers by spin-coating technique.

Ti-Nanoxide BL/SC offers a simple and convenient way to create a 50-70 nm compact titania layer by spin-coating the solution (5000 r/min for 30 s, acceleration 2000 r/min) and firing the coated substrates at 550°C for one hour. The resulting compact layers, also referred as “blocking layer”, is a pre-requisite in not only Perovskite Solar Cells but also most solid-state Dye Solar Cells where it acts as an electron-selective barrier on the anode.

Ti-Nanoxide T300/SC and Ti-Nanoxide T600/SC on the other hand, will lead to the formation of respectively 300 or 600 nm thick mesoporous titania layers by spin-coating the product (5000 r/min for 30 s, acceleration 2000 r/min) and firing the wet substrates at 475°C for 30 min. The mesoscopic structure obtained by the sintering of nano-particles in the process makes a perfect host for perovskite crystals.

What’s more, advanced users can advantageously tune the thickness of their mesoporous films by adjusting the concentration of Ti-Nanoxide T300/SC or Ti-Nanoxide T600/SC with the help of ethanol and the calibration curve shown below.

Customers preparing electrodes by screen-printing or slot-coating will be glad to know our catalogue already features equivalent products for these deposition techniques as well, namely Ti-Nanoxide BL/SP, Ti-Nanoxide T300/SP and Ti-Nanoxide T600/SP.

Such projects sponsored by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) intends to encourage small and medium enterprises to innovate through research and development in partnership with public research institutes. Solaronix’ constant strive for better and cheaper solar energy, as well as LPI’s expertise in this field, make it an ideal association for a CTI project.

Solaronix’ long term mastery of nano-particle synthesis, ink formulation, and printing techniques for the deposition of micron-thin active materials, will be put to good use for the fabrication of Perovskite Solar Cells. On the other hand, LPI’s proficiency in new material discovery and characterization, mechanism elucidation, and world renowned ability to break solar cell efficiency records, is undoubtably the best asset to the collaboration that could ever be. Both entities have spent more than 15 years developing Dye Solar Cells, from which the newer Perovskite Solar Cells inherit a number of ingredients and manufacturing techniques.

Last year, MIT Technology Review writes:

“The material is dirt cheap,” says Michael Grätzel, who is famous within the solar industry for inventing a type of solar cell that bears his name. His group has produced the most efficient perovskite solar cells so far—they convert 15 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity, far more than other cheap-to-make solar cells.

Indeed, Perovskite Solar Cells rely on a simple light absorbing material having a crystalline structure common to natural mineral calcium titanate. Fewer than a gram per square meter of this material is sufficient to convert sunlight to electricity with unprecedented efficiencies for thin-film solar cells. Perovskite Solar Cells unarguably open the path to efficient and low-cost third generation photovoltaics.

This 24 month long project will lead Solaronix and LPI to demonstrate the feasibility of industry compliant Perovskite Solar Cells built on affordable yet efficient materials, utilizing inexpensive manufacturing processes.