ASPIRE League Research Grant 2014 (Type1) Project
Principal Researcher

NameYuji Wada

Department andgraduate

Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Scienceschool(institute)in and Engineering
Tokyo Tech
Position

Professor

HKUST

Shihe Yang, Professor, Department of Chemistry

Co-researchers

KAIST
NTU
Tsinghua

Subject of the research
project

Byungha Shin, Assistant Professor, Department of Materials
Science and Engineering
Nripan Mathews, Assistant Professor, Department of Materials
Science and Engineering
HongLin,

Professor,

SchoolofMaterials

ScienceandEngineering
Creation of Ideal Interfaces of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Solar
Cell

LeadingtoCommercially-applicable

High-throughput

Fabrication Process for Flexible Device
The mesoscopic organic-inorganic hybrid solid-state solar cell(MS-cell) based on combining organic and inorganic
semiconductors (SC) is a highly attractive subject due to its highconversion efficiency, >15% (lab-scale), and ease of production
based on printable processes. The challenges in developing thissolar cell are proposed as 1) construction of ideal interfaces formore efficient charge transfer, 2) efficient photon-absorber innear-IR (NIR) region for high efficiency, 3) novel production
technology for high-throughput manufacturing, and 4)

Summary of the research
project

alternative semiconducting and photon-absorbing materials toreplace Pb-derivatives. The results of the precedingcollaborative research on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in
the laboratories of synthetic organic chemistry, materials
sciences, and physical chemistry in our department will beextensively applied to the MS-cell system that shares common
structures with DSSCs in order to solve the problems of 1 and 2.
In addition, the analytical techniques of charge transfers at
interfaces established in the DSSC area can also be applied tofurther understanding those of the MS-cell. The principal1researcher's pioneering work on microwave (MW) chemistry canalso be applied to the construction of the high-throughput processof flexible solar cell devices for commercialization as problem 3.
We would invite collaborators for the three subjects in thisproject as listed below, 1) printable perovskite-based hybrid SC
without toxic compounds, 2) computational chemical simulationof the organic-inorganic hetero-interfaces by means of quantum
chemistry and molecular dynamics, and 3) microwave-processing
for fabrication. The alternative printable photon-absorbing
perovskite-based hybrid SC using non-toxic andnaturally-abundant materials, such as Sn, Cu, etc., is highlydesired, since the conventional MS-cell is primarily composed of(R-NH3)PbX3 (R= hydrocarbon and X=halogen) containing theharmful heavy metal, Pb, which is a large obstacle forSummary of the researchcommercialization of MS-cells. The collaborator is supposed toprojectprovide optimized deposition conditions and photon-electronicproperties. The materials are assembled with ournanostructured oxide SC scaffold. The interfacial charge transfer
properties are examined to provide feedback for further material
development. The second collaborator is in charge of thesimulation of interfacial morphology between the hole conductor
and the dye-sensitizer at the interfaces with quantum chemistry
and molecular dynamics. The simulated interfacial information
is feedbacked for designing dye-sensitizers. The third
collaborator is in charge of the development of MW technologies
for fabrication of the cells. The principal researcher (PR) has over
20 years experience with chemical and physical research inDSSC and MW chemistry, which is valuable in developing theMS-cell. Additionally research collaboration in DSSC at Tokyo
Tech has been proceeding for 4 years, which is a large advantage
for the quick start-up in this new research field of MS-cells. A
new collaboration with ASPIRE league members would facilitate
the diversity needed to generate novel innovations for a realistic
MS-cell with the potential for large-scale commercialization.

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