The country’s energy system would become more resilient if it relied on several energy sources, including solar. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, solar energy accounts for about 3% of the country’s electricity overall and about 9% of Arizona’s. Perovskite solar cells, a specific kind of solar cell that University of Arizona chemical and environmental engineering associate professor Erin Ratcliff will seek to advance in scalability in the near future thanks to a $300,000 Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) grant, are used in the creation of thin, flexible solar cells.
Perovskites are minerals that have been identified with a particular crystalline structure. They are also referred to as lab-made perovskites with similar crystal structures. Their photoconductive character and ability to be printed on ultra-thin, flexible plastic inks make them valuable. Newspapers are printed in a similar way. Solar panels as thin and portable as a yoga mat may be used to charge gadgets ranging from avionics to wearables to technology required in rural areas or disaster areas.
The perovskite industry is growing rapidly, with its efficiency growing from 3% in 2009 to over 25% today. Perovskites are still in the early stages of development, like many new technologies. They are not very stable, in part because of their temperature sensitivity and the fact that they degrade over time. Scientists and engineers are working to figure out why perovskite cells are unstable. They currently last for months, but they must last for decades in the future. The highest-performance printable solar cell technology is perovskites,” Ratcliff said. However, the operating hypothesis in the field is that defects are responsible for instability.”
Using SETO’s funding, Ratcliff and her team will create a low-cost, scalable method for identifying manufacturing defects. Scientists will be able to understand how different parts and materials during the manufacturing process are related to defects and instability, as well as how to mitigate these effects. The SETO Small Innovative Projects in Solar 2022 Funding Program provided this funding, which funds early-stage solar energy research ideas that may deliver significant results within the first year of operation.
Technicians currently use a variety of methods to detect manufacturing flaws after the material has been produced. For example, they may shine a light on the material and see how it reacts. Ratcliff’s approach, meanwhile, will be able to detect defects during manufacturing as well as provide a more in-depth evaluation of the potential for defects. A robotic arm will apply a thin material akin to cellophane to a solar panel as it is being produced, using an electrochemical method.
Her work on quantifying defects is supported by the Office of Naval Research. She is also working with Tech Launch Arizona, a technology-commercialization company at the University of Arizona. According to Laura Silva, senior licensing manager for Tech Launch Arizona, low-cost, effective quality control methods are critical for large-scale manufacturing of perovskite-based photovolatices in order to scale the technology down to an operating line. Ratcliff’s technique is overcoming these challenges, making it more appealing to the market in need of higher and higher performance. Ratcliff received $400,000 in funding through the SETO initiative to design a mirror to change its curve throughout the day to capture the sun’s energy. Professor of astronomy and optical sciences at UArizona Roger Angel will use the money to design a method for changing the curvature of a mirror throughout the day to capture the sun’s energy.
