Methods of Stability Control of Perovskite Solar Cells for High Efficiency

Harnessing perovskite materials for water decontamination: a comprehensive review

Perovskites have recently emerged as a promising class of materials with a wide range of applications, including solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and catalysts. In addition, perovskites have demonstrated significant potential for water decontamination due to their tunable properties and facile synthesis. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of perovskites, including their preparation techniques, crystal structure, and electronic properties. The article also highlights the various applications of perovskites, with a particular focus on their use in water decontamination. The different types of perovskites for water decontamination, including simple, substituted, and doped perovskites, as well as nanoscopic and supported perovskites, are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the article addresses the beneficial costs of perovskites and the environmental impacts associated with their use, including toxicity and end-of-life management. The aim of this review article is to provide a broad perspective on perovskites and their potential for water decontamination, as well as future prospects and challenges in various applications.

Modification of Macromolecules of Polyimide Films by Electron Irradiation

New polymeric materials formation by controlling their properties is the primary and most challenging problem in developing a methodology for synthesizing a chosen technology and its use. The combined effect of high-energy electron radiation and tensile stress will cause a decrease in crystallinity and the breakage of chemical bonds in polyimide film macromolecules and is a new approach in their production technology. The effect of uniaxial tension and electron irradiation on the modification of polyimide film at room temperature was studied. Irradiation of the films caused an increase in the intensity of the IR spectrum by ~2-6 times and an increase in the width of the bands. The intensity in the range of 1700-3500 cm^-1 increased, indicating an increase in the content of radicals as a result of irradiation. The amplitudes of the electron paramagnetic resonance signal from non-irradiated films increased from 3 × 10³ to 5 × 10³ as a result of uniaxial tension to fracture, indicating an increase in radicals in the material. The lines of the electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum shifted from 3475.0 cm^-1 to 3512.5 cm^-1, with a simultaneous decrease in the signal's amplitude from 6 ×10³ to 4 × 10³, as a result of the electron irradiation of the films, followed by their subjection to tension. This was due to a decrease in the concentration of the radicals of the =N-H and -N-H₂ groups until their disappearance and the formation of new ones.

Lead-free MAGeI3 as a suitable alternative for MAPbI3 in nanostructured perovskite solar cells: a simulation study

The lead is a heavy metal with hazardous impacts on environment and human life. Lead-free perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention in recent years, due to eco-friendly characteristics. Meanwhile, Pb-containing cells showed the highest efficiencies among the various types of cells. Hence, designing novel Pb-free solar cells with comparable or better performance than the Pb-containing ones is highly required. In this work, a lead-free methyl-ammonium-germanium-iodide (MAGeI₃)-based perovskite solar cell with ITO/TiO₂/MAGeI₃/Spiro-OMeTAD/Ag multilayer nanostructure has been proposed and its main characteristics including open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and power conversion efficiency (η) have been evaluated and compared with those of MAPbI₃-based cell, in simulation study. The V_OC and η of the MAGeI₃-based cell (1.18 V and 11.9%) have been found comparable with those of the MAPbI₃ one (1.10 V and 14.6%). These results can excite more attention to Ge as a more environment-friendly element than Pb, in highly efficient upcoming perovskite solar cells.

Monovalent Copper Cation Doping Enables High-Performance CsPbIBr2-Based All-Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells

Organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have delivered the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.7% currently, but they are unfortunately limited by several key issues, such as inferior humid and thermal stability, significantly retarding their widespread application. To tackle the instability issue, all-inorganic PSCs have attracted increasing interest due to superior structural, humid and high-temperature stability to their organic-inorganic counterparts. Nevertheless, all-inorganic PSCs with typical CsPbIBr2 perovskite as light absorbers suffer from much inferior PCEs to those of organic-inorganic PSCs. Functional doping is regarded as a simple and useful strategy to improve the PCEs of CsPbIBr2-based all-inorganic PSCs. Herein, we report a monovalent copper cation (Cu+)-doping strategy to boost the performance of CsPbIBr2-based PSCs by increasing the grain sizes and improving the CsPbIBr2 film quality, reducing the defect density, inhibiting the carrier recombination and constructing proper energy level alignment. Consequently, the device with optimized Cu+-doping concentration generates a much better PCE of 9.11% than the pristine cell (7.24%). Moreover, the Cu+ doping also remarkably enhances the humid and thermal durability of CsPbIBr2-based PSCs with suppressed hysteresis. The current study provides a simple and useful strategy to enhance the PCE and the durability of CsPbIBr2-based PSCs, which can promote the practical application of perovskite photovoltaics.

Optimization of a New Composite Multicellular Plate Structure in Order to Reduce Weight

Currently, the most important structural design aims are weight reduction, corrosion resistance, high stiffness and vibration damping in several industrial applications, which can be provided by the application of advanced fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composites. The main research aim was to develop novel and innovative multicellular plate structures that utilize the benefits of lightweight advanced FRP and aluminum materials, as well as to combine the advantageous characteristics of cellular plates and sandwich structures. Two new multicellular plate structures were developed for the structural element of a transport vehicle. The first structure consists of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) face sheets and pultruded glass-fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) stiffeners. The second structure consists of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic face sheets and aluminum (Al) stiffeners. The second main goal of this research was the development of an optimization method of minimal weight for the newly developed all-FRP structure and the CFRP-Al structure, considering seven design constraints. The third main purpose was to confirm in a real case study that lightweight multicellular composite constructions, optimized by the flexible tolerance optimization method, provide significant weight saving (86%) compared to the all-steel structure. The added value of the research is that optimization methods were developed for the constructed new composite structures, which can be applied in applications where weight saving is the primary aim.