Research interests
Our research interests are focused towards the development
of materials and devices for sustainable solar energy conversion and storage
using low cost processing. Reducing the cost of manufacture includes both the
monetary cost as well as the energy investment required for production, as well
as extending the lifetime of materials and devices for such applications. The
main research in our group is focused on studying the stability of perovksite photovoltaic materials and devices. Phovotovoltaics (PV) based on organic-inorganic hybrid
metal halide perovskites have
recently attracted much attention, mainly due to the rapid improvement of their
power conversion efficiency (PCE)
from 3.8% to over 22.1%. Their advantages include ease of fabrication, high
light absorption, good charge carrier mobility, tunable bandgap,
and low cost. Despite these advantages, their poor operational stability
remains a major obstacle for their commercialization. Concentrated natural
sunlight was suggested for accelerated studies of lifetime and light-induced
degradation. We recently demonstrated an experimental methodology with
independent control of sunlight intensity, the sample temperature and
environment during the exposure. Our studies of perovskite
PV materials showed a strong dependence of the stability on the materials
composition, correlated with chemical bond strength, crystalline structures and
defect density. Furthermore, the synthesis sequence of the perovskite
deposition process was found to affect its stability, due to the effect of PbI2
residue in the film. Accelerated testing using concentrated sunlight is
therefore a powerful tool for material screening and advanced PV material
development. These methods are also used for testing strategies for improving
the stability of perovskite PV materials.
Other research projects in the lab include: 1.
Semiconductor-sensitized solar cells for IR absorption, based on wet-chemistry
deposited bulk- and nanoparticle absorbers; 2. Characterizing the effect of the
ordered electric double layer in ionic liquids on the electrochemical charge
transfer and transport, for applications in fuel cells and energy storage in
batteries; 3. Optimizing the performance of hematite photoelectrodes
for the production of solar fuels by water oxidation, via engineering of
structural and spatiotemporal heterogeneities.
· M.
Khenkin, K.M. Anoop, I. Visoly-Fisher,
S. Kolusheva, Y. Galagan, F. Di Giacomo,
O. Vukovic , B. Patil, G. Sherafatipour,
V. Turkovic, H-G. Rubahn,
M. Madsen, A. Mazanik, E. A. Katz, Dynamics of
photo-induced degradation of perovskite photovoltaics: from reversible to irreversible processes,
ACS Applied Energy Materials 1 (2018), 799-806. link
· M.
V. Khenkin, K.M. Anoop, I. Visoly-Fisher,
Y. Galagan, F. Di Giacomo,
B. R. Patil, G. Sherafatipour, V. Turkovic,
M. Madsen, H.-G. Rubahn, T. Merckx, G. Uytterhoeven, J. P. A. Bastos, T.
Aernouts, F. Brunetti, M. Lira-Cantu, E. A. Katz, Reconsidering
Figures of Merit for the Performance and Stability of Perovskite Photovoltaics, Energy and Environmental Science 11
(2018), 739 - 743. link
· E.
A. Katz, I. Visoly-Fisher, D. Feuermann,
R. Tenne, J. M. Gordon, Concentrated sunlight for materials
synthesis and diagnostics, accepted for publication in Advanced
Materials (2018), DOI: 10.1002/adma.201800444.
· N.
Maman, T. Templeman, H. Manis-Levy,
M. Shandalov, V. Ezersky,
G. Sarusi, Y. Golan, I. Visoly-Fisher,
Post-Growth Control of the Interfacial Oxide Thickness in
Semiconductor-Insulator-Semiconductor Hetero-Junctions, accepted for
publication in Advanced Materials Interfaces (2018), 1800231, DOI:
10.1002/admi.201800231. link
· Y.
Furmansky, S. Sergani, N. Ashkenasy, I. Visoly-Fisher, Photoconductance of ITO/Conductive Polymer
Junctions in the UV and Visible Ranges, Journal of Physical
Chemistry C 122 (2018), 7288-7295. link
· A.
A. Melvin, V. D. Stoichkov, J. Kettle, D. Mogilyansky, E. A. Katz, I. Visoly-Fisher,
Lead iodide as a buffer layer in UV- induced degradation of CH3NH3PbI3 films,
Solar Energy 159 (2018), 794-799. link
· J.
Harrell, M. Acikgoz, H. Lieber
Sasson, I. Visoly-Fisher,
A. Genova, M. Pavanello, Models
of Surface Morphology and Electronic Structure of Indium Oxide and Indium Tin
Oxide for Several Surface Hydroxylation Levels, J. Phys. Chem. C 122
(2018), 584–595. link
· B.
Gupta, N. Kumar, K. Panda, V. Kanan, S. Joshi, I. Visoly-Fisher, Role of oxygen functional groups in
reduced graphene oxide for lubrication, Scientific
Reports 7 (2017), 45030. link
· L.
Ciammaruchi, F. Brunetti, I. Visoly-Fisher,
Solvent effects on the morphology and stability of PTB7:PCBM.
Solar Energy 137: 490–499 (2016). link
· D.
A. Grave, D. Klotz, A. Kay, H. Dotan, B. Gupta, I. Visoly-Fisher,
A. Rothschild, Effect of Orientation on Bulk and Surface Properties of Sn Doped Hematite (a-Fe2O3) Heteroepitaxial
Thin Film Photoanodes. J. Phys. Chem. C 120
(2016), 28961–28970. link
· S.
Nabha-Barnea, N. Maman, I. Visoly-Fisher, R. Shikler, Microscopic
Investigation of Degradation Processes in a Polyfluorene Blend by Near-Field
Scanning Optical Microscopy, Macromolecules 49 (2016) 6439–6444. link
· R.
K. Misra, L. Ciammaruchi, S. Aharon, D. Mogilyansky, L. Etgar, I.
Visoly-Fisher, E. K. Katz, Effect of halide composition on the photochemical
stability of perovskite photovoltaic materials, invited communication, ChemSusChem
9 (2016), 2572 – 2577. link
· R.
K. Misra, S. Aharon, B. Li, D. Mogilyanski, I. Visoly-Fisher, L. Etgar,
E. A. Katz, Temperature- and component-dependent degradation of
perovskite photovoltaic materials under concentrated sunlight, J. Phys.
Chem. Lett. 6 (2015), 326−330. link
· A.
Yochelis, M. B. Singh, I. Visoly-Fisher, Coupling
bulk and near-electrode interfacial nano-structuring in ionic liquids,
invited perspective, Chem. Mater. 27 (2015), 4169-4179. link
· R. Gertman, A. Harush, I. Visoly-Fisher, Nanostructured Photocathodes
for Infrared Photodetectors and Photovoltaics, J. Phys. Chem. C 119 (2015),
1683–1689.
link
· I. Visoly-Fisher, A. Mescheloff, M. Gabay, C. Bounioux, L.
Zeiri, M. Sansotera, A. E. Goryachev, A. Braun, Y. Galagan, E.A. Katz, Concentrated
sunlight for accelerated stability testing of organic photovoltaic materials:
Towards decoupling light intensity and temperature, Sol. Ener. Mater. & Sol. Cells 134 (2015), 99–107. link
· R. Gertman, Y.
Berger, I. Visoly-Fisher, Pulsed electrodeposition of CuSCN for superfilling
of ZnO nanowire array electrodes, Electrochimica Acta 125
(2014), 65-70. link
· S. Sergani, Y.
Furmansky, I. Visoly-Fisher, Metal-free molecular junctions on ITO via
amino-silane binding - toward optoelectronic molecular junctions, Nanotechnology
24 (2013) 455204. link
· D. Gerster, J.
Reichert, H. Bi, J. V. Barth, S. M. Kaniber, A. W. Holleitner, I.
Visoly-Fisher, S. Sergani, I. Carmeli, Photocurrent of a single
photosynthetic protein, Nature Nano. 7 (2012), 673–676. link
· Y. Furmansky, H.
Sasson, P. Liddel, D. Gust, N. Ashkenasy, I.
Visoly-Fisher, Porphyrins as ITO photosensitizers: Substituents control
photo-induced electron transfer direction, J. Mater. Chem. 22 (2012),
20334. link
· I.
Visoly-Fisher, K. Daie, Y. Terazono, C. Herrero,
F. Fungo, L. Otero, E. Durantini, J. J. Silber, L. Sereno, D. Gust, T. A.
Moore, A. L. Moore, S. M. Lindsay, Conductance of a biomolecular wire, PNAS
103 (2006) 8686-90. link
· I.
Visoly-Fisher, S. R. Cohen, K. Gartsman, A.
Ruzin, D. Cahen, Understanding the Beneficial Role of Grain Boundaries in
Polycrystalline Solar Cells from Single Grain Boundary Scanning Probe
Microscopy, Adv. Funct. Mater. 16 (2006)
649-660. link
· I.
Visoly-Fisher, S. R. Cohen, A. Ruzin, D. Cahen, How
polycrystalline devices can out-perform single crystal ones: thin film CdTe/CdS
solar cells, Adv. Mater. 16 (2004) 879-83. link
· I.
Visoly-Fisher, K. D. Dobson, J. Nair, E.
Bezalel, G. Hodes, D. Cahen, Factors Affecting the Stability of CdTe/CdS
Solar Cells, Deduced from Stress Tests at Elevated Temperature, Adv. Funct. Mater. 13 (2003) 289-99. link
· K. D. Dobson, I.
Visoly-Fisher, G. Hodes, D. Cahen, Stability of CdTe/CdS Thin-Film Solar
Cells, review, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 62 (2000) 295-325. link