Toward Self-Driven Autonomous Material and Device Acceleration Platforms (AMADAP) for Emerging Photovoltaics...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Renewable Energy Technologies
• Photovoltaics

Background:

• The growing demand for renewable energy necessitates the development of novel photovoltaic technologies beyond silicon.
• Emerging photovoltaics offer diversification and enhance the security and competitiveness of the solar industry.
• Discovering new functional solar materials involves complex optimization challenges in vast material and parameter spaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advancements in automated and autonomous laboratories for materials discovery and device optimization.
• To highlight the application of these platforms in emerging photovoltaics, specifically perovskite and organic solar cells.
• To introduce in-house developed Materials Acceleration Platforms (MAPs) and Device Acceleration Platforms (DAPs).

Main Methods:

• Integration of robotic synthesis and characterization with AI-driven data analysis and experimental design.
• Development and utilization of two MAPs for materials discovery and two DAPs for device optimization.
• Application of robot-based high-throughput experimentation for optimizing complex material and parameter spaces.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated success in accelerating the discovery and optimization of organic interface materials, new semiconductors, and thin film composites.
• Showcased the potential of platforms like SPINBOT and AMANDA for optimizing device architectures and autonomous operation.
• Successfully addressed optimization challenges in multidimensional composition and parameter spaces for organic and perovskite photovoltaics.

Conclusions:

• Automated and autonomous laboratories are crucial for efficient materials discovery and device optimization in emerging photovoltaics.
• MAPs and DAPs significantly reduce experimental cycles and improve data quality for machine learning.
• A holistic concept for a self-driven autonomous material and device acceleration platform (AMADAP) laboratory is proposed for future solar materials development.