December 2017

Researchers from South Korea have developed a new system that uses perovskite materials for producing hydrogen from water, which they say overcomes several of the common challenges and produces gas more efficiently than other water electrolysis systems.

The new device was developed by a research team consisting of scientists from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Sookmyung Women's University, and is based on an existing design called a solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC). These are similar to other electrolyzers in that an electrical current splits water into its constituent molecules ' hydrogen and oxygen ' which can then be harvested. The difference is that in this setup, both electrodes are solid-state, as is the electrolyte that carries the ions between them.

WPI-MANA (World Premier International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics) at NIMS in Japan has developed perovskite-based high-performance dielectric nanofilms that may revolutionize next-gen electronics.

The team created the high-performance dielectric nanofilms by using 2D perovskite nanosheets (Ca2Nam'3NbmO3m+1; m = 3'6) as building blocks. Perovskite oxides have tremendous potential for controlling a variety of electronic properties including high-κ dielectric and ferroelectric.

2017 is soon over - and it was another exciting year for the perovskite industry. Researchers continue to innovate and develop more efficient solar panels and new and innovative perovskite applications are being discovered.

Here are the top 10 stories posted on Perovskite-Info in 2017, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. Perovskite-graphene large area solar cell achieves record efficiency (Mar 7)
2. KBNNO perovskites may be able to turn sunlight, heat and movement into electricity all at once (Feb 9)
3. Australian team reports "new world efficiency record" with perovskite solar cells (Apr 5)
4. NTU team printes flexible perovskite solar cells (Jun 4)
5. Perovskites assist in creating a new type of solar cell (Jan 29)
6. ASU and Stanford team create high efficiency perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell (Feb 21)
7. Microquanta reports 15.24% efficiency perovskite-based PV modules (Mar 14)
8. Dyesol receives a $2 million grant for commercializing perovskite solar cell technology (Feb 8)
9. Solliance demonstrates industrially-applicable roll-to-roll processes for the production of perovskite-based solar cells (Mar 14)
10. Researchers use carbon nanotubes to improve the stability of perovskite-based solar cells (Mar 19)

A Monash University-led project, aimed at making it easier, cheaper and more efficient to capture solar energy through building windows and walls, has recently been awarded funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Associate Professor Jacek Jasieniak, Director of the Monash Energy Materials and Systems Institute, will receive 0.75 million Australian dollars (almost $0.6 million USD) to develop highly efficient and extremely thin perovskites-based solar cells.

Oxford Photovoltaics Germany, a subsidiary of Oxford PV, has received funding of €15 million form the European Investment Bank (EIB), to support the commercialization of its perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cell technology.

The funding is the first in Germany under InnovFin - EU Finance for Innovators' Energy Demonstrator Projects. It relies on the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2010 Financial Instruments, aimed at supporting European innovators such as Oxford PV, tackling tomorrow's challenges and supporting climate action.

Greatcell Solar has announced that it has finalized and signed a funding agreement with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) for a 6 million AUD (around $4.5 million USD) grant under the Advancing Renewables Program (ARP). The grant will assist in developing a world-class prototype facility in Australia for the fabrication of high quality, large area, current generation and next generation perovskite devices, an essential prerequisite to large scale manufacture.

The grant will assist Greatcell to accelerate its scale-up and prototyping activities that are critical to its commercialization objectives, and is said to clearly demonstrate the importance of ARENA in supporting the development of renewable energy technology in Australia.

Emberion researchers have shown that colloidal quantum dots (QDs) combined with a graphene charge transducer can provide a photoconducting platform with high quantum efficiency and large intrinsic gain, yet compatible with cost-efficient polymer substrates. The team demonstrated methods to couple large QDs (>6 nm in diameter) with organometal halide perovskites, enabling hybrid graphene photo-transistor arrays on plastic foils.

The resulting arrays simultaneously exhibited a specific detectivity of 5 × 1012 Jones and high video-frame-rate performance. PbI2 and CH3NH3I co-mediated ligand exchange in PbS QDs improved surface passivation and facilitated electronic transport, yielding faster charge recovery, whereas PbS QDs embedded into a CH3NH3PbI3 matrix produce spatially separated photocarriers leading to large gain.

EPFL researchers have shown that Incorporating guanidinium into perovskite solar cells stabilizes their efficiency at 19% for 1000 hours under full-sunlight testing conditions.

A major challenge in the PSCs field is stability; Unlike silicon cells, perovskites are soft crystalline materials and prone to problems due to decomposition over time. In a commercial context, this tends to inflate the costs of perovskite-based solar cells compared with conventional silicon cells. There have therefore been many efforts in synthesizing perovskite materials that can maintain high efficiency over time. This is done by introducing different cations (positively charged ions) into the crystal structure of the perovskite. Although success has been reported in several studies, these solutions can often be difficult and expensive to implement.

Australia-based GreatCell Solar, formerly known as Dyesol, was founded to develop, scale-up and commercialize 3rd generation solar PV technologies, and currently the company focuses on perovskite solar cell (PSC) materials and technologies.

GreatCell's Managing Director, Richard Caldwell kindly agreed to talk with Perovskite-Info about the Company's current technology and future plans - and his views on the perovskite market.

A team at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a novel perovskites and CNTs-based demonstration device that responds to sunlight by transforming from transparent to tinted while converting sunlight into electricity.

A switchable photovoltaic window

The thermochromic windows technology responds to heat, as was said, by transforming from transparent to tinted. As the window darkens, it generates electricity. The color change is driven by molecules (methylamine) that are reversibly absorbed into the device. When solar energy heats up the device, the molecules are driven out, and the device is darkened. When the sun is not shining, the device is cooled back down, and the molecules re-absorb into the window device, which again appears transparent.