NASA selects OSU project to receive $750,000 grant

Jacob Sellers Staff Reporter

NASA selected a project from Oklahoma State University to receive a grant of $750,000.

The grant will go toward efforts in exploring a fully Vacuum Thermal Evaporation (VTE)-processed halide perovskite solar cell using only solid precursors for developing a simple solar panel manufacturing process suitable for space.

Do Young Kim, assistant professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, leads a research group that has explored the possibility of halide perovskite solar cells in the space power markets for their low cost, low weight, adaptability to flexible architecture and tolerance to high energy particle irradiation.

“The significant radiation tolerance of halide perovskites is attributed to the details of defect formation in the material,” Kim said. “This leads to interfacial or energy mismatches in the transport layers within the structure rather than mid-gap defect centers that arise in more traditional systems. Based on these perovskite solar cell research experiences for space application, we could prepare this new NASA project for perovskite solar cells for inspace assembly.”

Halide perovskite solar cells have shown high efficiency of over 25%, comparable to the state-of-the-art silicon solar cells. Silicon and traditional III-V solar cells are less radiation tolerant to proton fluences, whereas halide perovskites appear to be the opposite. The absorber layer of these cells seems to be relatively unaffected by proton irradiation at energies and fluences that are prohibitive for traditional space solar power systems.

One of the main issues for halide perovskites is the vulnerability of perovskite solar cells to oxygen and moisture. However, that issue is irrelevant in space.

“The environmental conditions limiting the implementation of perovskites terrestrially are less problematic in space,” Kim said. “This coupled with their lightweight, the potential for low specific power and packing volume and the potential for deployable implementation; along with the ease of processing, outstanding performance and remarkable radiation tolerance all suggest perovskite thin film solar cells are excellent candidates for space applications.” the game gets out of wack like it did,” Holliday said. “We tried to steal clean innings when we could and start some guys that needed some room to work and that didn’t work.”

See Depleted on 3