A research team of Professor Hong Chang-kook (School of Chemical Engineering) has developed a new high-efficiency electrode material that can dramatically improve the thermal stability and manufacturing process of the next-generation perovskite solar cell.

The research team of Professor Hong solved the problem of thermal stability and durability by replacing the organic-based perovskite solar cell material with an inorganic material. The research team succeeded in developing the nano-crystalline material of MgZnO for a new electron transport layer material. It has enabled a low-cost manufacturing process by drastically lowering the processing temperature from 450 ℃ to 140 ℃ and introducing a process that does not use any solvent.
 
The traditional solar cell electrode material had problems such as a high processing temperature and instabilities. The new material realized high efficiency as well as low process temperature and has excellent thermal durability that can withstand 1,000 hours in the air even at a high temperature of 85 ℃.

The results of this study were published with a cover image in the February 2020 issue of Advanced Energy Materials (Impact factor: 24.884), a renowned scientific journal of energy-related fields.