Lead-free perovskite solar cells

Antonio Abate / Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Berlin, Germany

February 2, 2023

Introduction

Halide perovskites quickly overrun research activities in new materials for cost-effective and high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies. Since the first demonstration from Kojima and co-workers in 2007, several perovskite-based solar cells have been reported and certified with rapidly improving power conversion efficiency, now approaching the theoretical limit. Recent reports demonstrated that perovskites outperform the most efficient photovoltaic materials to date. At the same time, they still allow solution processing as a potential advantage in delivering a cost-effective solar technology.
The most stable and efficient perovskites contain lead, among the most toxic elements on earth. Lead-free alternatives have been reported with impressive progress in power conversion efficiency for tin-based (lead-free) perovskites. However, the stability of tin-based perovskite solar cells is still unexplored. In the present talk, we will focus on the stability of tin-based (lead-free) perovskite solar cells.

Antonio Abate

is the head of the department of “Novel Materials and interfaces for photovoltaic solar cells” at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in Germany.  He is researching solar energy conversion with halide perovskites.
Before his current position, Antonio led solar cell research at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland as a team leader. He was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne within the group of Prof. Grätzel.  He worked for four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Snaith and at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof. Steiner.  Antonio got his PhD summa cum laude at Politecnico di Milano in 2011.