A new type of material for next-generation solar cells eliminates the need to use lead, which has been a major roadblock for this technology.
Solar cells, incorporating the mineral perovskite, have been the focus of attention since the material was first shown to work in 2009. Solar cells that are built using this material are more efficient than current solar panels. Current solar panels capture 15% to 18% of the solar energy on average, while perovskite solar cells have been found to be as much as 28% efficient.
But there are major obstacles to using these materials commercially: The materials are not stable, and they contain water-soluble lead, which is a health hazard.
Now a team of scientists and engineers led by Letian Dou, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Purdue University, have developed a sandwich-like material incorporating organic and inorganic materials to form a hybrid structure that doesn’t use lead and has much improved stability.
“These structures are very exciting,” Dou said. “The sandwich structures are like semiconductor quantum wells that are widely used today in many electronic and optoelectronic devices, but they are much easier to produce and more tolerant to defects,”
The research was published Monday (Nov. 11) in the journal Nature Chemistry.
In a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in September, the scientists had incorporated the material into an essential component of many electronic devices, a field effect transistor.
Yao Gao, lead author of both research papers and a postdoctoral fellow in Dou’s research group, said the new organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials are cheaper and perform better than a traditional inorganic semiconductor. Also, Gao said, the new material’s design strategy could serve as a blueprint for many other functional hybrid materials.
“Solar cells, as many people have demonstrated, can be highly efficient,” he said. “With our new technology, we can make the hybrid perovskite materials intrinsically more stable. By replacing the toxic lead, these new materials are better for the environment and can also be safely used for bioelectronics sensors on the body.”
Learn more: New material points toward highly efficient solar cells
The Latest on: Solar cells
- Aptos Solar Offers Up AC Solutions to U.S. Marketon January 12, 2021 at 8:37 am
Aptos Solar Technology, a provider of solar module technology, and Northern Electric Power (NEP), a global manufacturer of mircoinverters, have partnered to deploy high-performance AC solutions to the ...
- Joliet Junior College Now Powered by Solar, Will Save $1.6 Million Annuallyon January 12, 2021 at 8:24 am
Joliet Junior College (JJC) announced this week the completion and activation of a 1.3-megawatt (MW) onsite solar system at JJC's main campus.
- China Patent Office upholds the validity of REC Group's patent against Hanwha Q Cellson January 12, 2021 at 7:40 am
To protect its intellectual property, REC Group filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Hanwha Q Cells (Qidong) Co., Ltd. (part of Hanwha Q Cells) in February 2020. The China Patent Office's ...
- Water-splitting tech to reduce moisture in perovskite solar cellson January 12, 2021 at 4:31 am
Italian researchers have engineered a hole extraction layer with water-splitting additives to reduce the impact of moisture in perovskite PV devices. They claim that the method ensured a power ...
- NASA shows off new solar panels for the ISSon January 12, 2021 at 3:57 am
The ISS has been in orbit above the Earth for decades. Power for the space station and the experiments onboard comes from four pairs of solar arrays designed for a 15-year service life. Those ...
- Inverted perovskite solar cell with 21.1% efficiency and high moisture resistanceon January 12, 2021 at 3:19 am
Australian scientists have built a perovskite solar cell based on 2D and 3D salts. By adding a fluorinated lead salt in the processing solution – normally used to form 3D methylammonium lead iodide – ...
- Space Station To Get Solar Cell Boost from Boeing Subsidiary in Sylmaron January 11, 2021 at 5:42 pm
A new set of solar cells built in Sylmar will help the International Space Station extend cutting-edge orbital research capabilities and commercial opportunities for years to come, it was announced ...
- Analytical measurements can predict organic solar cell stabilityon January 11, 2021 at 12:11 pm
researchers have developed an analytical measurement ''framework'' which could allow organic solar cell researchers and manufacturers to determine which materials will produce the most stable solar ...
- Global Thin Film Solar Cell Equipment Market Size, Historical Growth, Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast To 2025on January 11, 2021 at 11:56 am
Selbyville, Delaware, Global Thin Film Solar Cell Equipment Market report added by Market Study Report that gives meticulous investigation of current scenario of the market size, share, demand, growth ...
- New proposed multifunctional nanomaterial could enhance solar energy, quantum computingon January 11, 2021 at 11:39 am
An atypical two-dimensional sandwich has the tasty part on the outside for scientists and engineers developing multifunctional nanodevices.
via Bing News
The Latest on: Perovskite solar cell
- KAUST researchers raised bar for solar energy harvestingon January 12, 2021 at 5:14 am
To increase the performance of solar panels, an international collaboration; including researchers from King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST); and U of T Engineering, created a ...
- Two-sided solar cells can collect scattered light to gather more energyon January 11, 2021 at 7:09 pm
Out in the field, light primarily comes directly from the sun. Conventional tandem solar cells can already convert this light into electricity more efficiently compared to traditional silicon-only ...
- Tandem solar cells break new recordon January 10, 2021 at 4:24 am
Latest Explore all the latest news and information on Physics World; Research updates Keep track of the most exciting research breakthroughs and technology innov ...
- New strategies for designing electroluminescent materialson January 8, 2021 at 7:02 am
New research details how a class of electroluminescent materials, key components of devices such as LED lights and solar cells, can be designed to work more efficiently. Published in Nature Photonics, ...
- Curtains can also be solar panels: Japan-made tech to change worldon January 7, 2021 at 7:01 pm
A perovskite solar cell harvests sunlight and is thin and transparent enough to coat machines and objects such as electric vehicles, vending machines, smartphones, clothes and curtains. This new solar ...
- Scientists Invent Solar Cell with Record-Breaking Efficiencyon January 7, 2021 at 2:52 pm
After more than a century, the world is finally starting to move away from fossil fuels in search of cleaner, more sustainable alternatives. Solar power has emerged as one of the , and for years, sci ...
- Materials Spotlight: How Perovskite Was a Hotbed of 2020 Researchon January 5, 2021 at 4:14 pm
Just how can perovskite components carve their own niche in a silicon world? To answer that question, we’ll assess perovskites’ inherent benefits and growing popularity amongst today’s manufacturers ...
- First Glimpse of Polarons – Ephemeral Distortions – Forming in a Promising Next-Gen Energy Materialon January 5, 2021 at 9:14 am
These fleeting disruptions, seen for the first time in lead hybrid perovskites, may help explain why these materials are exceptionally good at turning sunlight into electrical current in solar cells.
- First Glimpse Of Polarons In Perovskiteon January 5, 2021 at 3:22 am
Polarons are fleeting distortions in a material's atomic lattice that form around a moving electron in a few trillionths of a second, then quickly disappear. As ephemeral as they are, they affect a ...
- Researchers watch polarons form for the first timeon January 5, 2021 at 3:01 am
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University used an x-ray laser to watch and directly measure the formation of polarons for the ...
via Bing News
