While perovskite has begun to branch out into transistors and nanowire lasers, it already has a stellar reputation as an alternative to silicon in photovoltaics.
However, perovskite’s rise to glory in the field of solar cells has not come without a few hiccups. One of the key problems has been that the production processes for making the material involves some toxic lead compounds.
Now researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are leading a three-year project dubbed “Nanosolar” that both seeks to address this issue and to reduce material consumption and thereby production costs.
“We are looking for a way to apply non-toxic materials,” said Alexander Colsmann of KIT, in a press release.
Colsmann and his colleagues believe that if they can tackle the enviromental concerns, the prospects for perovskite-based solar cells will be greatly improved, expanding their potential from serving just in large-scale energy production, but also in de-centralized power supply arrangements.
The key to achieving this de-centralized power supply role will be to develop perovskite-based thin-film photovoltaics. “Thin-film solar cells have a very homogeneous appearance and, hence, can be used as facade cladding, for instance,” said Colsmann in the release.
To develop their new thin-film process the researchers will be examining the entire gamut of a pervoskite-based solar cell production process: from the synthesis of the materials through the fabrication of a fully functioning solar cell.
The researchers will be producing the perovskite solar cells with a printing and coating process used in the manufacture of organic solar cells. If perovskite solar cells can meet the production costs of organic solar cells and reach the energy conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells, then perovskite indeed will deserve its very promising reputation in the field of photovoltaics.
Dexter Johnson is a contributing editor at IEEE Spectrum, with a focus on nanotechnology.
