top of page

Solar Cells

Solar energy is one of the most abundant energy sources on the earth´s surface and has motivated the development of new materials to design the new generation of solar cells with better photoconversion efficiency. Reduction in materials and fabrication cost are required to accelerate the adoption of such technology. A general list of the solar cell configurations under investigation in our group includes:

MESOSCOPIC PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS.

We prepare devices with the configuration FTO/TiO2/Perovskite/HTL/Au and implemented different protocols to improve the charge transport making possible to obtain the highest photo conversion efficiency of 18.5% only 4% lower than the worldwide record. Such efficiency obtained in our lab is the highest efficiency obtained ever in the history of photovoltaic research in Mexico. However, the major problem is the stability. We are studying different protocols, including engineering of the energy levels, mixing different anion and cations, intercalated 3D-2D structure and the inclusion of nanomaterials to improve both efficiency and stability. Our challenge is to obtain photovoltaic devices with stability larger than 1000 h and efficiency higher than 15%.  

PEROVSKITE QUANTUM DOTS SOLAR CELLS.

Inorganic perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) are highly stable and tunable. Tunability can be controlled by composition and particle size. We synthesize PQDs for different chemical methods controlling size and composition in order to engineer the energy levels and used as the active film to design photovoltaic devices and also as a sensitizer or to improve charge transport in both mesoporous and inverted configuration. We explore the use of new environmentally-friendly anions and cations for both solar cells and LEDs.

Imagen9.png
SOLID2.png

PbS AND CdSeTe QUANTUM DOTS FOR SOLAR CELLS DEVICES.

The tunability of QDs in the entire solar spectrum and the ability to paint the colloidal ink on flexible and hard substrate for rapid and low fabrication cost, make this material excellent candidate for the generation of solar cells. We synthesize binary and ternary QDs for chemical methods and then prepare colloidal ink that can be used as sensitizer in TiO2 solar cells. The photoconversion efficiency obtained in our lab, and also the highest in Mexico, is 7.5% compared to the worldwide record of 12%. Our main purpose is to improve photovoltaic devices obtaining efficiency higher than 10% in larger area both on flexible and hard substrate in inverted configuration.

CuZnTinS(Se) (CZTSSe) NANOPARTICLES FOR SOLAR CELLS DEVICES. 

Earth abundant and non-toxic elements are fundamental to promote the adoption process of nanotechnology on solar cells devices. Cu2ZnSnSxSe(1-x)4 (CZTSSe) nanoparticles present a broad optical band gap at 1.5 eV and high absorbance coefficient of 10-4 cm-1. We synthesize CZTSSe colloidal ink nanoparticles to be painted on both flexible and hard substrate in an inverted configuration of solar cells devices. Changing composition and nanoparticle size controls electronic properties.

CELLS1.png
Imagen11.png
bottom of page