A team of researchers from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, along with ones from Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) science institute, Germany, have designed a novel approach to the selective layer formation in perovskite solar cells. The molecule, synthesized by the KTU chemists, assembles itself into a monolayer, which can cover a variety of surfaces and function as a hole transporting material in a perovskite solar cell. This results in a reduction of the amount of materials used in the process, thus reducing costs.

The molecule in this work assembles itself into a monolayer and can evenly cover any oxide surface (including textured surfaces of the silicon solar cells used in tandem architectures. "It's not polymer, but smaller molecules, and the monolayer formed from them is very thin. This, and the fact that the monolayer is being formed through dipping the surface into the solution makes this method much cheaper than the existing alternatives. Also, the synthesis of our compound is a much shorter process than that of the polymer usually used in production of perovskite solar cells", says Ernestas Kasparavičius, PhD student at KTU Faculty of Chemical Technology.