It was reported that Sekisui Chemical, a Japanese plastics maker, will begin mass production of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) in an effort to catch up with Chinese competitors.

The company will invest more than 10 billion yen (over USD $68 million) to build a new manufacturing facility with an annual production volume of several hundred thousand square meters by 2030.

Researchers from Harvard University have reported a bioinspired liquid-based encapsulation strategy, that offers protection from water without sacrificing the operational properties of the encapsulated materials.

Using halide perovskite as a model system, the team showed that damage to the perovskite from exposure to water is drastically reduced when it is coated by a polymer matrix with infused hydrophobic oil. 

Researchers from China's University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Korea University have developed an effective strategy to modify the Tin dioxide (SnO₂)/perovskite buried interface by passivating the buried defects in perovskite and modulating carrier dynamics via incorporating formamidine oxalate (FOA) in SnO₂ nanoparticles.

Tin dioxide (SnO₂) is a commonly used electron transport material for n-i-p-type perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to its high light transmittance and electron mobility, suitable energy levels, good stability under UV irradiation, and it can be processed at low temperatures. The buried interface of perovskite/SnO₂ plays a major role in achieving high efficiency and stability. However, the non-exposed buried interface is challenging to study and manipulate.

Researchers from Spain's BCMaterials, University of Barcelona and IKERBASQUE have developed water stable perovskites, by adopting a unique additivization strategy to stabilize the FAPI alpha phase. 

Thanks to their thermal stability along with a monocationic and anionic nature, formamidinium lead triiodide (FAPI) perovskites have emerged as an attractive material to avoid thermal degradation and phase segregation and promising photoactive materials for perovskite solar cells. However, the unfavorable phase transition from cubic (3C) to hexagonal (2H) due to the lower formation energy of the latter hinders its immediate use. Stabilizing the 3C phase of FAPI against atmospheric stresses is a critical challenge in PSC research, and the goal of this recent study.

Researchers from Texas A&M University, Northwestern University, University of South Florida and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have studied the fatigue behavior of 2D hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) in practical applications.

The application of repeated or fluctuating stresses below the material's strength, known as fatigue loading, often leads to failure in 2D hybrid materials. However, the fatigue properties of HOIP materials have remained elusive despite their widespread use in various applications. The research group demonstrated how fatigue loading conditions, wearing different components, would affect the lifetime and failure behavior of the materials. Their results provide insights into designing and engineering 2D HOIPs and other hybrid organic-inorganic materials for long-term mechanical durability.

Researchers from North Carolina State University, National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Rey Juan Carlos University have created a novel materials acceleration platform (MAP), essentially a robot capable of conducting experiments more efficiently and sustainably to develop a range of new semiconductor materials with desirable attributes. The researchers have demonstrated that the new technology, called RoboMapper, can rapidly identify new perovskite materials with favorable properties and improved potential for creating stable and efficient solar cells.

“RoboMapper allows us to conduct materials testing more quickly, while also reducing both cost and energy overhead – making the entire process more sustainable,” says Aram Amassian, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University.

Researchers from the University of Toronto, the University of Kentucky, EPFL, North Carolina State University and Northwestern University have designed a perovskite solar cell that can stand up to high temperatures for more than 1,500 hours — an important achievement on the to commercialization. 

“Perovskite solar cells offer new pathways to overcome some of the efficiency limitations of silicon-based technology, which is the industrial standard today,” said Ted Sargent, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, professor of chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and a former professor at the University of Toronto. “But due to its multi-decade head start, silicon still has an advantage in some areas, including stability. This study shows how we can close that gap.”

A team of researchers at the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE) at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) has fabricated a semi-transparent perovskite solar cell (PSC) that, by combining it with a silicon-based solar cell, has demonstrated an efficiency of more than 26% for such a cell.

The team at IIT Bombay has addressed the stability issue by combining their PSC with a silicon solar cell in a tandem configuration. Combining the two different types of solar cells allows the device to convert more of the light falling on it into electricity. Apart from the higher efficiency, the tandem architecture also provides greater stability to the device, while driving its overall lifetime costs low.

Researchers from Purdue University, University of California and the University of Kentucky have constructed a new perovskite interlayer that reportedly exhibits both superior thermal and moisture stability in ambient conditions.

“Enhancing the stability and lifetime of perovskite devices is necessary in order to realize the goal of commercialization for perovskite photovoltaics,” said Jiaonan Sun. “Today, the stability of commonly used hole transporting layers (HTL) is still a bottleneck for achieving the required lifetime". Poly(triaryl amine) (PTAA) is a promising polymeric hole transporting material used in PSC applications, however, it’s hydrophobicity causes problematic interfacial contact with perovskite, limiting the device’s performance. Led by Dr. Letian Dou, the researchers successfully constructed a uniform two-dimensional (2D) perovskite interlayer with conjugated ligands, between three-dimensional (3D) perovskites and PTAA to improve the power conversion efficiency and the interfacial adhesion of the devices. These increased-ion migration, energy barrier conformal, 2D coated unencapsulated devices with new ligands provide greater thermal and moisture stability in different environments.

A Department of Energy (DoE) project, lead by University of Michigan's Prof. Zetian Mi, is using perovskites to develop high efficiency, low cost, and ultrastable production of green hydrogen fuels directly from sunlight and water.

The new method to achieve clean hydrogen through solar water splitting offers a promising path to achieving net-zero carbon emissions. The University of Michigan research team aims to stabilize perovskite-based solar cells to produce highly-efficient, low-cost, ultrastable green hydrogen fuel.