. In recent years a new class of materials, called organometallic halide perovskite materials, has emerged with a potential to improve a solar cell's performance while fabricated at low cost. Concerned with the adverse effects to environment and health due to the use of lead in the existing perovskite materials, which can be dissolved in water, the research team aims to discover and develop new lead-free organometallic halide perovskite materials that are environmentally friendly and stable. The expected outcome of this project enables a sustainable solar cell technology that is safe for commercial deployment to generate low-cost solar electricity. The research team participates in multiple educational and outreach activities to recruit, train and mentor graduate, undergraduate, and high school students, particularly from underrepresented groups, who are interested in materials science and engineering. In addition, the project team intends to openly disseminate the computer codes used to design these materials and to predict their structures and properties.

Technical Abstract

goal of this project is to use a computation-guided approach to study new lead-free organometallic halide perovskite materials with mixed metal ions. The lead-containing organometallic halide perovskite materials have shown great promise for offering superior optoelectronic properties to enable high performance photovoltaic action while allowing to be easily processed in solution or high vacuum. In this project, the research team seeks to replace the lead in these perovskite materials with ion pairs with the same or different valence states in specific ratios. The scientific tasks include: (1) computationally screening a large number of material candidates to identify promising candidates for further studies by employing high-throughput framework of MPInterfaces; (2) computational simulation of structure and properties of the identified candidates using density functional theory calculations; (3) solution-based synthesis of these perovskite materials in both thin film and bulk crystal forms; and (4) characterization of the electronic, optical, photovoltaic, and multiferroic behavior of these new perovskite materials. The ultimate goal is to explore the large family of lead-free, perovskite-structured organic-inorganic hybrid materials and to identify the most promising, environmentally-safe materials with improved performance for photovoltaics applications.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Materials Research (DMR)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1609306
Program Officer
James H. Edgar
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2016-08-15
Budget End
2020-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
$500,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Florida
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Gainesville
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32611