FURI | Fall 2023

Implications of Open-Air Manufacturing of Robust Perovskite Thin Films Enabled by Food Industry Additive

While silicon modules have become the industry standard for solar energy, perovskite materials hold the potential for making high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells through solution processing of Earth-abundant materials. Interestingly, unmodified perovskite inks suitable for small-scale laboratory production yield poor results when processed with scalable methods like blade coating. This research aims to study the effects of gellan gum, a non-toxic additive from the food industry, in improving film stability and processability in a scalable, one-step, open-air environment through the characterization of crystallization, morphologies, and related stress measurements.