SuPerSolar: Superior Efficiency and Flexibility with Quantum Nano-structured Perovskite Solar Cells enhanced by Light Management

Project funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT) (Concurso para Financiamento de Projetos de Investigação Científica e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Todos os Domínios Ci), grant PTDC/NAN-OPT/28430/2017. Funded amount: EUR 143,985, as stated by the source. Runs 2018-07-01 to 2022-02-28. Keywords: Photovoltaics, Photonics, Quantum Nanotechnology, Perovskite Solar Cells, Engineering and technology. Source: OpenAIRE Graph, from the funder's project data (collected by OpenAIRE on 2026-07-23); national funding data, not CORDIS. Abstract given by the source: SuPerSolar project will deliver means to ubiquitously transform light into electricity, in a highly efficient way, by driving a step-change in photovoltaics (PV) while bringing it to affordable consumer products; thus contributing to a more clean and energetically-efficient society. This will be accomplished by developing inexpensive and flexible single-junction solar cells with efficiencies that can go beyond the Schockley-Queisser theoretical limit (~33%)[6]. This can now be achieved by exploring industry-oriented scientific creativity in 3 key areas in the frontline of PV R&D: 1) Innovative materials: The PV technology is based in Perovskite cells[7,8], which demonstrated recent stabilized efficiency records (~22%)[9] close to those (~25%) of the market-dominant silicon (Si) devices, but with solution-processed thin-film materials deposited by non-vacuum, wet-coating processes. Therefore, Perovskite-based PV is currently the most attractive candidate for low-cost solar-powered flexible electronics[10]. 2) Quantum physics: High efficiency (>30%) is targeted by developing nanostructured PV semiconductors able to supply electrical current from photons with energy below their bandgap. This is attained via quantum-confined electronic levels energetically-aligned inside the bandgap[11], formed by the ground-states of lower-bandgap semiconductor nanoparticles (quantum dots, QDs) incorporated in the host PV semiconductor (see Fig.2). This ground-breaking concept can now be realized with its full potential, to approach its theoretical efficiency limit of 50%, as it was recently found that Perovskites are ideal to form nanostructured epitaxial-aligned dots-in-host (QD@Perovskite) hetero-crystals[12]. 3) Photonics: wave-optical high-index (e.g. TiO2) nano/micro-structures are currently the most promising light-trapping (LT) solution for PV[13], and will be applied on the cells (see Fig.3) to: 1) Enhance the sub-bandgap photocurrent generation from the QD@Perovskite [shortened; the full text is on the OpenAIRE page]

Original source.

Source: OpenAIRE Graph: projects of national funders, OpenAIRE, from the project data of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT). Retrieved 2026-10-28. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (OpenAIRE Graph). Selected metadata, adapted presentation; the publisher's record is authoritative. No endorsement by the source is implied. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).

AI-assisted summary: The SuPerSolar project, funded by FCT with EUR 143,985, aims to enhance the efficiency of perovskite solar cells from July 2018 to February 2022. It focuses on developing flexible solar cells that exceed the Schockley-Queisser limit for improved photovoltaics. Suggested technology pillar: enabling. Generated by AI from the public source text; it may contain errors and the original source is authoritative.