Perovskite

Singaporean researchers have developed a semitransparent perovskite solar panels for applications such as building-integrated PV, vehicle-integrated solar, and smart glasses. They built it with a highly transparent and conducting transparent conductive oxide layer via tin-doped indium-oxide sputter deposition.

A new perovskite PV cell based on titanium dioxide nanoparticles exhibits low efficiency losses when scaled up from cell to module.

The lead-free solar cell was modeled via a three-dimensional finite element method by an Iranian research group. The cell was designed without the buffer layer and with the addition of anti-reflection layer (ARL) strategies, as well as the use of periodic nano-texture patterns.

A Swiss-Japanese research group has used ionic liquids doping to improve the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells. Their champion device showed an open-circuit voltage of 1.16 V, a short-circuit current of 24.03 (mA cm−2), and a fill factor of 0.818. It was also able to retain around 95% of its initial efficiency after 1,000 hours of operation.

The cell is based on ferrocene and is claimed to retain more than 98% of its initial efficiency after continuously operating at the maximum power point for 1,500 hours under standard illumination conditions.

An international research group has developed a perovskite solar panel on a 192 square-centimeter surface. The researchers claim the panel has one of the highest efficiencies reported at this size to date.

Researchers in Germany have built a perovskite-organic solar cell with low interfacial losses and a high open-circuit voltage. The device achieved an open-circuit voltage of 2.15 V, a short-circuit current of 14.0 mA cm−², and a fill factor of 80%.

Academics from MIT and Stanford who have posited a new production method for perovskite solar cells have also developed a machine learning system which benefits from the experience of seasoned workers – and they’ve posted it online for anyone to use.

NGK Insulators has invested an undisclosed sum in Enecoat, which develops perovskite solar cells via a wet process based on organic chemistry, a low-temperature coating process, and roll-to-roll printing.

Researchers have developed a PV module with with an efficiency of 20.72%, based on tin oxide (SnO2) as an electron transport layer,  an organometal halide perovskite layer, organic halide salt phenethylammonium iodide (PEAI) as a passivation agent, and Spiro-OMeTAD as the hole transport layer (HTL).