Researchers at KAUST have developed a multifunctional molecule that can plug various atomic-scale defects in perovskite solar materials, which could significantly boost the longevity and electrical output PSCs.

Perovskites inevitably feature defects, such as where a particular ion did not slot into place during fabrication, leaving a gap in the structure. These reactive sites can contribute to rapid performance decline — unless they can be fixed. “Defect passivation is very important for improving the long-term stability of perovskite solar cells,” says Furkan Isikgor, a researcher in Stefaan De Wolf’s group.

Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an inexpensive, lightweight, and lead-free photo-battery that has dual functions in harvesting solar energy and storing energy on a single device. This could enable users to charge a battery under the sun, without having to plug the device into the wall.

Despite the theoretical potential of such photo-batteries, in reality it seems that the poor interface between materials tends to create problems with charge transport, greatly reducing the efficiency in comparison to the simple system of a solar cell wired to an external battery. A team led by Prof. Jonathan Eugene Halpert, Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry at HKUST, has made advancements towards developing more efficient photo-batteries by using perovskites.

Researchers from the UK's University of Bath and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have developed a way to make perovskite-based components for low-cost electronics.

The physicists have found a way to make perovskite-based transistors, while overcoming the problem of the material's ion content interfering with the flow of electronic current through a transistor. This breakthrough may pave the way for research into greener electronic components for low-cost electronic devices.

A joint research team, affiliated with Korea's UNIST, has developed a novel method capable of controlling the brightness and wavelength of quantum dots (QDs). The work was led by Professor Kyoung-Duck Park in the Department of Physics at UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Sohee Jeong in the Department of Energy Science from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU).

The research team demonstrated the tip-induced dynamic control of strain, bandgap, and quantum yield of single CsPbBr_xI_3'x pQDs by using a controllable plasmonic nanocavity combined with tip-enhanced photoluminescence (TEPL) spectroscopy.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is currently seeking research proposals for the development of x-ray technology capable of what the agency calls "extreme photo imaging."

As part of its Extreme Photon Imaging Capability - Hard X-Ray (EPIC-HXR) project, DARPA said it is looking to develop uncooled hard x-ray imagers based on advanced nanocrystalline materials with high spatial and energy resolution, including quantum dot and perovskite materials.

Australia's national science agency, the CSIRO, has announced that it will team up with fellow Australian in-space transportation provider Space Machines Company (SMC) to test the potential of its perovskite-based solar cells on SMC's spacecraft Optimus-1, due to be launched next year by Gilmour Space Technologies.

CSIRO is pursuing the development of printable solar cells that are lightweight, thin and semi-transparent. The science agency has been researching both organic PV (OPV) and perovskite solar cells. Printable 'solar inks' are deposited onto flexible plastic films that can then be connected to make solar panels of significant size.

A research team, led by Prof. Di Dawei from the Zhejiang University College of Optical Science and Engineering, recently discovered that by using germanium (Ge), an environmentally friendly group-IV element, to partially substitute lead in the perovskite, it is possible to create highly luminescent perovskite materials and devices.

Schematic of the Ge'Pb PeLED device structure. Image from Nature Communications

To resolve the toxicity problem that arises from the use of lead, an effective method has been the use of tin (Sn) as a partial or full replacement of lead in the perovskite materials. This strategy has been particularly successful for perovskite solar cells. However, tin-based (including tin-lead) perovskite materials are generally very poor light emitters, causing unsatisfactory performance of tin-based perovskite light-emitting devices (LEDs).

Researchers from China's Nanjing Tech University have developed a smart solar window technology, based on a photovoltachromic device that is able to achieve high transmittance and be self-adaptable to control indoor brightness and temperature.

The device was assembled using a full solution process in an architecture incorporating glass, a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) layer, a perovskite-based PV cell, an electrochromic gel, another FTO layer, and glass.

Researchers from Kanazawa University in Japan have found that the addition of cesium iodide can improve the stability and efficiency of certain perovskite solar cells. Added to MAPbI₃ cells by alternately depositing thin layers of MAPbI₃ and CsI, atoms from Cs migrate and become intercalated into the crystal lattice.

'Our approach allowed us to produce layers with precise control over the CsI intercalation,' said researcher Tetsuya Taima. Using this control, different Cs-inclusive perovskite crystals were created.

Researchers from Korea and Vietnam have developed and designed a bifacial four-terminal perovskite/crystalline silicon heterojunction tandem solar cell configuration albedo reflection in which the c-Si HJ bottom sub-cell absorbs the solar spectrum from both the front and rear sides (reflected light from the background such as green grass, white sand, red brick, roofing shingle, snow, etc.).

This approach reportedly achieved an outstanding conversion efficiency exceeding 30%, higher than those of both the top and bottom sub-cells. Notably, this efficiency is also greater than the Schockley'Quiesser limit of the c-Si solar cell (approximately 29.43%). The proposed approach has the potential to lower industrial solar cell production costs in the near future.