The research team of professor Hong Chang-kook (School of Chemical Engineering) has developed a new manufacturing process that can dramatically improve the thermal stability and durability of organic-based thin-film solar cells.

Until now, organic-based perovskite solar cells used to have the possibility of a low-cost, high-efficiency, and flexible next-generation thin-film solar cell. However, it had the drawbacks of low thermal stability and poor durability. Especially, low durability has been a hindrance to commercialization due to its potential problem of rapid efficiency deterioration when it is installed outdoors where changes of moisture and temperature are severe.

Professor Hong’s team has succeeded in developing CuSCN (Copper thiocyanate) thin film, which is simple and inexpensive in the manufacturing process and applied it as the double-layered hole transporting layer for solar cell. It has been successful improving the thermal stability significantly.

The conventional hole transporting layer for the solar cell transfer layer was sensitive to moisture and thermally unstable since it uses polymer materials and the durability at room temperature was very low, only lasting 1-2 weeks. However, the newly developed CuSCN thin film has solved these drawbacks, as it has excellent thermal stability and long-term durability that can withstand over 2,000 hours even at high temperatures of 85℃.

Along with this, a rapid transfer speed and the improved interfacial properties enable the manufacturing of thin film solar cells with a high efficiency of 19.24%.

 The study's findings were published in the June edition of an academic journal of a related field, Materials Today (of which the Impact Factor is 24.537).