November 2016

Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK designed an environmentally friendly perovskite solar cell in which lead is substituted for tin with reportedly undiminished rates of performance but at cheaper cost and with lower toxicity.

The team stated that tin-based perovskites are much more stable than previously thought, and also render solar power cheaper, safer and possibly even more commercially attractive. "The device structure can be greatly simplified without compromising performance, which leads to the important advantage of reduced fabrication cost" the scientists say.

Dr. Lioz Etgar obtained his Ph.D. at the Technion'Israel Institute of Technology, and completed his post-doctoral research with Prof. Michael Grätzel at EPFL, Switzerland. Dr. Etgar was the first to demonstrate the possibility to work with the perovskite as light harvester and hole conductor in the solar cell which result in one of the pioneer publication in this field.

Dr. Etgar is now leading the Perovskite solar lab in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. Etgar's research group focuses on the development of innovative solar cells. Etgar is searching for new excitonic solar cells architectures while designing and controlling the inorganic light harvester structure and properties to improve the photovoltaic parameters. Etgar was kind enough to answer a few questions we had for him.

EPFL scientists have developed a new perovskite material whose magnetic order can be rapidly changed without disrupting it due to heating. This novel material may potentially be used to build next-generation hard drives.

The EPFL team synthesized a ferromagnetic photovoltaic material. This material is a modified version of perovskite, that exhibits unique properties that make it particularly interesting as a material to build next-generation digital storage systems. The researchers explain that they have basically created the first magnetic photoconductor; This new crystal structure combines the advantages of both ferromagnets, whose magnetic moments are aligned in a well-defined order, and photoconductors, where light illumination generates high density free conduction electrons.

A team of researchers from the Israeli Bar-Ilan University and the Spanish Universitat Jaume I in Castello and Universidad de Granada have showed that the contact interface of the perovskite material in a perovskite-based solar cell is behind the drastic and random fluctuations that happen when the solar panels are tested.

The researchers have discovered a light-induced interfacial phenomena in hybrid perovskite solar cells between the n-type contact (TiO₂ or TiO₂/PCBM interlayer) and the perovskite absorber. By changing the n-type contact and measuring the solar cells under the same conditions, it was demonstrated that the light-induced phenomena originates at the interface.

Oxford PV, a spin-out from the University of Oxford that aims to commercialize a new technology for thin-film solar cells, has recently acquired the former thin-film production site of Bosch Solar in Germany, to establish a fab with pilot-scale capacity for perovskite wafers.

The plan is to ramp up Oxford PV's perovskite technology to industry-standard wafer size. Oxford's CEO stated that the facility was identified because of its existing first-class facilities and the ready availability of a local, experienced, highly skilled workforce. The Brandenburg team will work closely alongside the existing operation in Oxford.

Researchers at Australia National University (ANU) have developed a novel manufacturing technique for perovskite solar cells, that may boost their efficiency. The ANU team sees this as a breakthrough that 'significantly improved' the performance of perovskite solar cells, which can combine with conventional silicon solar cells to produce more efficient solar electricity.

The ANU team designed an approach that requires a small amount of the element indium to be added to one of the cell's layers, which is claimed to result in a 25% increase in its power output. With perovskite better at converting visible light into electricity, and silicon more efficient in the infrared part of the spectrum, a combination of both is a promising path going forward.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a flexible perovskite solar cell that reaches an efficiency of 21.7%, a peak conversion efficiency of 26% and could be manufactured using a low cost roll-to-roll process.

Many previous attempts to merge two perovskite materials have failed because the materials degrade one another's electronic performance. This design was achieved using a new way of combining two perovskite solar cell materials ' each tuned to absorb a different wavelength or color of sunlight ' into one 'graded bandgap' solar cell that absorbs nearly the entire spectrum of visible light.

Perovskites that are direct-bandgap semiconductors could be real alternatives to current materials used in LEDs - for applications such as displays and lighting. Perovskite could lead the way towards easy-to-produce, affordable and efficient LED devices. Read out new article Perovskite for LEDs to find out more!