ACAP International collaboration projects
STELR (2018-2020)
Partners: Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ASTE); Standford University, California, USA.
This project supported by ACAP collaborative grant is a research study of the degradation of OPV modules exposed to end-user handling testing, as well as an outreach initiative aiming to develop the awareness of next-generation solar by students acting as end-users for the research study.
The Science Technology Education Leveraging Relevance (STELR) project is the National STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) school initiative of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ASTE). STELR is deployed in over 600 schools around Australia and overseas. In this project, flexible OPV modules will complement the renewable energy program offered by STELR where students will play the role of end-users, undertaking guided and open-ended research into solar electricity generation. Over 100 schools in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Indonesia are taking part in the program and up to 25,000 students are involved.
So far, over 500 printed and encapsulated OPV modules with various photoactive ink materials and encapsulation architectures have been fabricated using the roll-to-roll printing and encapsulating facilities at CSIRO in Clayton.
A characterisation kit has been designed, mass-produced and deployed to the schools along with the OPV modules.
Prior to sending them to the schools, the modules have been characterised using various techniques such as current-voltage characterisation, photocurrent maps and electroluminescence images.
After one year of handling under different geographical location and environmental conditions, the modules will be returned to CSIRO for further investigation, including decohesion analysis conducted by Sandford University.
Our flexible, printed PV educational kit for schools, supported by Australian Centre of Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP).
Students from Negeri school in Bontang, Indonesia experimenting with our educational kit. 100 schools in Australia, New Zealand, and the Phillipines received this kit.
Printed Charge Transport Layer (2019-2021)
Partners: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China and University of Cambridge, UK
Organic molecules based on indacenodithiophene (IDT) chemical backbone is a breakthrough material from the field of organic photovoltaics. Our recent proof-of-concept study has shown that IDT-molecules also has a great potential as electron transport layer (ETL) in Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs) which demonstrate superior film-forming property, compatibility with non-hazardous industry-relevant solvents, and strong interfacial adhesion with perovskites imparting higher device stability. In this project, our aim is to further investigate IDT-based molecules to find optimum electronic properties suitable for printed perovskites being developed at CSIRO to further improve device PCE and stability.
Top row: Optical images comparing the film quality of slot-die coated IDT-based molecule and fullerene-based molecule on top of perovskite films ( scale bar is 500 microns). Bottom row: Scanning electron microscopy images show IDT- molecules form uniform films on top of perovskite films with full surface coverage while fullerene-based molecules display strong aggregation, which is detrimental for solar cell performance and stability (scale bar is 1 microns).