oa Photovoltaics: The Quest For A Clean, Affordable And Renewable Energy

Since the design of the first working solar cell in 1954, silicon has been the material of choice for the fabrication of efficient, durable yet cost effective solar devices. The tremendous progress of microelectronic industry made it possible to engineer the properties of the materials and the large scale fabrication of silicon devices at low cost. Yet, the cost of the energy produced by PV technology remains significantly higher than that produced from fossil fuels. Strategies to lower the cost include the reduction of the amount of materials by using thin films, the development of novel fabrication processes that are not based on vacuum technologies and the quest of novel abundant, non toxic alternative materials. Perovskite hybrid cells have recently emerged as potential alternative to silicon based devices. However, major challenges remain before a perovskite cell becomes available on the market. We describe in this work some of these challenges and our recent contribution to enhance the power conversion efficiency by replacing the moisture sensitive hole transport material layer a by more resistant and cheaper organic material.