(61) Preparation of new alkyl ammonium perovskite related materials

     With an energy industry grounded largely in non-renewable fossil fuels, renewable resources are a focus of research globally. Solar energy remains a major player, with new records for efficiency being broken each... [ view full abstract ]

     With an energy industry grounded largely in non-renewable fossil fuels, renewable resources are a focus of research globally. Solar energy remains a major player, with new records for efficiency being broken each year. A landmark breakthrough for solar cells efficiency occurred in 2013, when perovskite photovoltaics boosted efficiencies beyond 15%. Continued research in this area has led to multilayered solar cells with efficiencies up to 40% in lab settings. In an attempt to develop a potentially useful new class of similar materials, we are developing halide perovskites containing ammonium cations with multiple aliphatic chains (2 or 3) of varying lengths (3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12). While a great deal of work related to halide perovskites has been reported in the last ten years, there is essentially existing knowledge related to materials related to the proposed systems. As such, we are not only focused on synthesis but also analyzing these materials using several methods—differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarizing microscopy (POM), powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD)—to determine whether they are liquid crystalline.