Solaires Enterprises and XLYNX Materials recently announced a collaboration of efforts toward building efficient and stable perovskite solar cells to “unlock the full potential of recycled light.”
The indoor photovoltaics market is entering a period of rapid growth and is projected to be worth $58 billion by the end of 2027—with perovskite-based indoor photovoltaics, like the technology produced by Solaires, expected to represent the largest share of this total market.
The partnership between the two Victoria-based companies aims to help engineer the future of solar energy, according to Dr. Sahar Sam, a cofounder of Solaires Enterprises.
“Through collaboration with XLYNX Materials, we are one step closer to making solar energy even more sustainable, cost-effective, and accessible,” Sam stated.
Solaires has developed its own perovskite-based solar technology with efficiencies as high as 35%, while XLYNX—spun out of the University of Victoria—is developing diazirine cross-linking technology to address polymer adhesion challenges.
What makes a powerful pairing with Solaires is that XYLNX’s proprietary molecular bonding agent, BondLynx, has proven to be an effective stabilizing agent for perovskite solar cells, improving efficiency and long-term performance in recent studies.
“BondLynx was designed primarily as a molecular adhesive, but researchers working with our diazirine crosslinkers have discovered some pretty exciting new applications for this technology,” explains Sean Bourquin, Director of Strategy with XLYNX Materials.
“The stability improvements it made in academic perovskite solar studies were remarkable,” he continued, “so we we’re thrilled to find a neighbour like Solaires—right here in Victoria—to help validate the commercial potential of this application with their perovskite-based solar modules.”
The two companies are next working on incorporating XLYNX’s cross-linking technology into Solaires’ perovskite inks to develop high-efficiency indoor solar modules.
Initial results have been “encouraging,” according to a statement from the B.C. firms.
The teams believe their combination of respective technologies and expertise could be a “game-changer” in conventional battery-operated indoor device markets.
XLYNX was founded in 2019. Solaires was established in 2020.
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