Stability

Researchers from the University of California San Diego, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the Air Force Research Laboratory have developed a technique that could enable the fabrication of longer-lasting and more efficient perovskite solar cells, photodetectors, and LEDs.

Strain-engineered, single crystal thin film of perovskite grown on a series of substrates with varying compositions and lattice sizes. Image Credit: David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

A major obstacle is the tendency of one of the best-performing perovskite crystals, α-formamidinium lead iodide (HC(NH₂)₂PbI₃, known as α-FAPbI₃), to assume a hexagonal structure at room temperature, in which photovoltaic devices are required to operate. This hexagonal structure cannot respond to most of the frequencies of light in solar radiation, and is hence not useful for solar applications as it could be. The team therefore set out to stabilize the structure of α-FAPbI3, using a simple but useful approach known as strain engineering, which has been used to tune the electronic properties of semiconductors.

Researchers from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania have found that metal chalcogenide perovskites can be used as a thermoelectric material that can convert thermal energy from the sun to usable electric power.

Metal chalcogenide perovskites, with their nontoxic elemental composition, are known to offer greater thermal and aqueous stability than organic-inorganic halide perovskites. This means that they may be more suitable than other materials in the perovskite family to address the two biggest issues in commercial solar cell production: low thermal stability and toxicity.