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Description: Description: scheme

Materials for Solar Energy Conversion and storage

            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 eciency (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.

 

Selected publications

·  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