LABandFAB · Enabling the scalable and cheap production of efficient and stable organic-based photovoltaic technology realized via printing techniques, for electricity generation

Enabling the scalable and cheap production of efficient and stable organic-based photovoltaic technology realized via printing techniques, for electricity generation

The reduction of greenhouse emissions is presently acknowledged as a major European objective, and by 2040 a 40% emissions cut is expected, with renewable sources contributing up to 27%. Moreover, the current global energy scenario – threatened by potential shortages and steep and sudden price rises - makes the search for alternative (and complementary) renewable energy sources an absolute priority. In this respect, LAB&FAB aimed at developing the fabrication of efficient, cheap and stable organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology, with the potential of being scalable and eventually transferred from a lab-environment to production line. The LAB&FAB project pursued its main objectives on the two parallel fronts. From the one side, LAB&FAB exploited state-of-the art OPV to push its efficiency, while working on lifetime. Long-term stability tests were carried out on specific device structures to allow for durability assessments, and for an understanding of the best materials compatibilities enhancing the cell’s stability. Both proprietary as well as commercial materials were tested. Efforts were dedicated also to the development of an efficient encapsulation process, able to protect the device performance, without altering it. At the lab scale instead, novel and efficient materials were systematically explored, characterized and optimized for their subsequent integration into solar cells large-area production. The device fabrication itself was object of thorough exploration, in view of the general scalability principle laying behind OPV industrialization. Besides the actual fabrication used to test and characterize new materials/structures, alternative (and more energy/time saving) predicting approaches were also explored and based on the materials miscibility, as well as on quantum-mechanical based simulations of the materials chemical properties. The LAB&FAB project objectives, dealing with the in-depth characterizations of a series of different donor/acceptor materials for organic photovoltaic applications, as well as with various technologically-based challenges related to the OPV technology upscale, are well aligned with the more general energy transition scenario towards a low-carbon concept, endorsed by the European Green Deal.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз