A research team from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne (Switzerland), co-operating within the GOTSolar project, has demonstrated a perovskite solar cell with a significantly smaller number of structural defects. The unexpected improvement of the photovoltaic performance was observed when perovskites produced by mechanochemistry were used for the construction of a typical photovoltaic cell.

The group from IPC PAS (Warsaw University of Technology) was the first to demonstrate that polycrystalline halide perovskites (CH3NH3)PbI3 can be produced in mechanochemical reactions. Recently, the group presented the mechanochemical production of mixed perovskites, those in which several different types of ions alternate in position A. This is an important achievement, because by carefully altering the chemical composition of the perovskite materials, they can be adapted to specific applications in photovoltaics, catalysis and other fields of science and technology.

Researchers from the University of Utah have discovered that a special kind of perovskite can be layered on a silicon wafer to create a vital component for the communications system of the future. That system would use the terahertz spectrum, the next generation of communications bandwidth that uses light instead of electricity to move data.

By depositing a special form of multilayer perovskite onto a silicon wafer, then team can modulate terahertz waves passing through it using a simple halogen lamp. Modulating the amplitude of terahertz radiation is important because it is how data in such a communications system would be transmitted.

Australia-based RRAM developer 4DS Memory announced that it has signed an agreement with Belgium-based imec to develop a transferable manufacturing process for its technology. As part of the agreement the two parties will demonstrate the process with a 1Mbit test chip.

The 4DS memory cell is constructed using an advanced perovskite material, which has the same crystal structure as the inorganic compound calcium titanium oxide. The cells have no filaments and are so claim to be easier to scale compared to filamentary RRAM.

Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have inadvertently created a perovskite-based lead compound that was invisible to the human eye but could be made visible on demand, while attempting to synthesize glowing chemical compounds.

The ink works by converting a lead-based metal organic framework to luminescent perovskite nanocrystals. It is printed using an ordinary inkjet printer onto paper. A person looking at the paper would not be able to see what was written until salt is applied - which would cause a chemical reaction making the information printed on the paper to become visible when exposed to UV light. Applying salt again would cause another reaction, rendering the information invisible again.