MAKE IN INDIA 2022

IIT-Guwahati researchers develop costeffective, highly efficient perovskite solar cells

Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati researchers have developed hybrid perovskite-based solar or photovoltaic devices, which are highly efficient, cost effective, easy to manufacture and easily recyclable when it comes to producing electricity from the sunlight.

The emerging perovskite-based semiconducting devices are considered the most promising due to their low-cost, ease of manufacturing as roll-to-roll devices, high material availability and easy recyclability.

These devices were developed for achieving power conversion efficiencies beyond 21 per cent by utilizing economical solutionbased photovoltaic device processing techniques at mild room temperature and realizing high ambient, thermal and optical stability.

Among all the renewable energy sources, the energy from sun (solar energy) is considered to be the most sustainable due to its ample availability on the surface of the earth. Currently, inorganic solar cells (Silicon-based) are a major player in the market. However, this technology requires high-temperature processing, which results in the high price of solar panels. Further, the

recycling of solar panels is hazardous and complicated. "The perovskite solar cells (PSCs) research has experienced tremendous attention due to their exponential growth in terms of efficiencies achieved within a decade. However, the perovskite materials are extremely unstable in ambient (humidity and oxygen) conditions that restrict their commercialization," said a release from IIT-Guwahati.

The research team at IIT Guwahati comprising research scholars Rabindranath Garai (Department of Chemistry), Ritesh Kant Gupta (Centre for Nanotechnology), Arvin Sain Tanwar (Department of Chemistry) and Maimur Hossain (Department of Chemistry), all working under the supervision of Professor Parameswar K. Iyer, Department of Chemistry and Centre for Nanotechnology and School for Health Science and Technology, IIT Guwahati, have achieved the results in terms of efficiency and stability of the PSCs.

In this recent study of IITGuwahati, published in the American Chemical Society journal 'Chemistry of Materials' mentioned how charged conjugated polymers have been incorporated in photovoltaic devices as a passivation molecule to achieve defect-free highquality perovskite solar cell devices.

The passivated defect-free device reveals a high efficiency of 20.17 per cent with excellent reproducibility. Such polymer based passivation method effectively improved the long-

term device stability by improving the hydrophobicity of the perovskite layer.

In another recent investigation by the team, published in The Royal Society of Chemistry journal 'Journal of Materials Chemistry A', the researchers demonstrated the development of solutionprocessed multi-dimensional (2D-3D) graded perovskites and the precise role of surface re-crystallization to achieve very high efficiencies, stability, economical device scalability by mitigating the perovskite defects.

Speaking about these research output, Prof Iyer mentioned that organic-inorganic hybrid PSCs have experienced rapid growth in terms of efficiency and stability due to the development of highly efficient functional materials combined with careful device engineering. The materials design can be tailored at the molecular level whereas the fabrication process is printable and solutionbased, making the overall solar cell development process economical and scalable.

These results obtained from perovskite solar cells have performed well beyond the commercial inorganic solar cells panels which are available in the market presently. Also, these small and large area devices performances are among the best results achieved using these classes of perovskite materials. "Therefore, the strategies being developed have the potential to address the renewable energy challenges regarding the largescale commercial fabrication of efficient and stable solar panels," the release added.

Daimler India shipped out 9,000 CVs in 2021

German truck and bus maker Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) on December 24 said it had exported 9,000 commercial vehicles in 2021.

With this, the company crossed some new milestones including 45,000 vehicles, 9,000 completely knocked down (CKD) kits and 200 million parts exported.

India is a key hub for Daimler trucks, with DICV serving not only growing domestic demand, but also more than 60 export

destinations across the globe including markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

DICV is the only Daimler truck location worldwide that produces engines, transmissions, trucks and buses at the same site under four brands -- BharatBenz, FUSO, Mercedes-Benz, and Freightliner.

"It is a momentous occasion for us at DICV and a great testimony to the trust our customers worldwide have in our locallymade products. Despite the ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic and its effect on logistics, we continue to foster a global presence with exports of 'Made in India' products," DICV Managing Director and CEO, Satyakam Arya, said.

Vedanta Aluminium launches high-speed billets for extrusion industry

Vedanta Aluminium Business, India's largest producer of aluminium and value-added products, launched highspeed billets for the global extrusion industry at a virtual event with participants from the downstream and extrusion industry.

The company's global experts on billet extrusion also shared a slew of initiatives as part of its Customer Technical Service cell for unparalleled customer experience.

Vedanta is India's largest manufacturer and exporter of high-quality aluminium billets, which find end-usage in Building & amp. construction, Solar/ Renewable Energy, Automotive, Electrical and many other key industries through the extrusion process. Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-section profile by pushing material through a die. It also creates excellent surface finish and gives considerable freedom of form in the design process. The high-speed billets are a part of Vedanta Aluminium's portfolio of billet offerings, manufactured with the highest engineering precision. Best-in-class global technologies like Wagstaff HotTop Air Slip Casting System (USA) and Hertwich Continuous Homogenising Furnace (Austria) have been used to manufacture these billets.

Vedanta's high-speed billets can improve extrusion speed by at least 25 per cent, or more, depending on the extrusion environment. With superior metallurgical properties brought about with stringent process control and optimised chemistry, these billets demonstrate exceptional extrusion speed without compromising on the strength of the extruded profile. These products show significant improvement in process recovery.

Launching the product, Rahul Sharma, CEO – Aluminium Business, Vedanta Ltd, said, "We are committed to manufacturing the best aluminium products, as well as offering our customers a powerful competitive edge in their business aspirations. Our holistic solutions are market responsive and tailored to support customers at various stages of their evolving business journey. With our deep R& D capabilities and global expertise, we are keen to co-create leading edge innovations with our customers. high-speed billets are our latest offering in a long line of expertly customized product solutions for various industry segments."

Vedanta's Customer Technical Services cell anchors customers' quality and technical requirements from existing and new products. Jonathan Pangborn, global billet- extrusion expert working with Vedanta's Customer Technical Services cell added, "Vedanta Aluminium has a robust and quality-focused manufacturing. The Customer Technical Service team is geared up to adapt our customized product portfolio to the evolving needs of the extrusion industry. I look forward to collaborating with customers and providing the best technical solutions to them, as part of Vedanta's value-added service offering."

As aluminium is a dynamic and rapidly evolving industry with potential for greater applications in a sustainability-conscious world, Vedanta is also focusing its efforts on R&D, bringing together Technical, Operations and Marketing expertise in a Centre of Excellence to invent the next big thing in aluminium.

Vedanta is constantly augmenting its value-added product portfolio by introducing customer-centric products and next-generation technologies. Vedanta Aluminium Business, a division of Vedanta Limited, is India's largest manufacturer of aluminium, producing half of India's aluminium at 1.97 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in FY21. It is a leader in valueadded aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. With its world-class Aluminium Smelters, Alumina Refinery and Power Plants in India, the company fulfills its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the

'Metal of the Future' for a greener tomorrow. SOURCE: Invest India, National Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency, Government of India