Perovskite-Info: the perovskite experts

Researchers at Cornell University and University of Cambridge have analyzed the overall environmental impact of two types of solar panels, comparing these against panels made with crystalline silicon wafers – the current industry standard.

The team found that a solar panel made from two layers of perovskite requires a smaller total energy input and results in fewer carbon emissions. The panel, a perovskite-perovskite tandem, contains two layers of the material on top of each other, each optimized to absorb a section of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Scientists at UC San Diego have developed a new method to fabricate perovskites as single-crystal thin films, which are more efficient for use in solar cells and optical devices than the current state-of-the-art polycrystalline forms of the material.

Their fabrication method - which uses standard semiconductor fabrication processes - results in flexible single-crystal perovskite films with controlled area, thickness, and composition. These single-crystal films showed fewer defects, greater efficiency, and enhanced stability than their polycrystalline counterparts, which could lead to the use of perovskites in solar cells, LEDs, and photodetectors.

In a recent report, Camilo X. Quintela and an international group in materials science, physics and engineering in the U.S., Norway, China and South Korea proposed a novel direction for materials design based on nitride antiperovskite and oxide perovskite crystals.

Schematic representation of the crystal structures of M3XN nitride antiperovskite and ABO3 oxide perovskite compounds and their interfaces. Image from Science Advances

In this work, they successfully layered perovskites and antiperovskites together, to create an interface with unique electrical properties for applications in a new class of quantum materials.

Australia-based RRAM developer 4DS Memory announced that it has raised a total of $7.6 million AUD ($5.45 million USD) in two financing round. The 4DS memory cell is constructed using an advanced perovskite material, which has the same crystal structure as the inorganic compound calcium titanium oxide.

4DS Memory says that it will use the funds to further develop its Interface Switching ReRAM technology with imec and Western Digital's subsidiary, HGST.

A new study, led by Dr. Shayanti Mukherjee at the Australian Hudson Institute (a leading Australian translational medical research institute), has found that perovskites materials can have anti-microbial properties, without toxic side effects to human cells.

(A) process of perovskite synthesis; (B) preparation of electrospinning solution with perovskite. Image from Nanomaterials

Dr Mukherjee and her team, who already have a significant program researching new bio-degradable nanomeshes to revolutionize treatments for pelvic organ prolapse (POP), have shown for the first time that perovskites can be used as additives to engineer human tissue implants.

Researchers at Swansea University, Imperial College London and the University of Oxford have launched a project to drive next-generation solar technology into new applications. The team has been awarded a £6 million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant to advance organic and perovskite solar cells into applications that current solar technologies are not suitable for.

The promise of such next-gen PV could make it suitable for new applications that will be critical to advances such as:

• 5G, which requires ultra-lightweight sources of power for pseudo-satellites and high altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
• The Internet of Things, for which sensors and computing devices are increasingly embedded into everyday objects
• Zero-carbon buildings and vehicles, which could use their roofs, walls and windows to generate power.

Researchers at Pusan National University, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) in South Korea have tackled perovskite solar cells' stability issues by designing a graphene-based encapsulation technique.

The team introduced a highly flexible and stable graphene encapsulant by adopting the dry transfer method based on a roll-based process.