Perovskite materials
A perovskite is any material with a crystal structure following the formula ABX3, which was first discovered as the mineral called perovskite, which consists of calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3). Perovskites have a nearly cubic structure and the chemical formula is ABO3. Typically perovskite compounds have the chemical formula ABX3, where "A" and "B" represent cations and X is an anion bound to both. A large number of different elements can combine to form a perovskite structure. Using this compositional flexibility, scientists can design perovskite crystals with a variety of physical, optical, and electrical properties. Today, perovskite crystals are found in ultrasonic machines, memory chips and current solar cells.
Schematic diagram of perovskite crystal structure
Potential applications for perovskites are various, using in sensor and catalyst electrodes, some types of fuel cells, solar cells, lasers, storage devices, spintronics and so on.
Clean energy applications of perovskites
All photovoltaic solar cells rely on semiconductors—materials that sit between electrical insulators like glass and metal conductors like copper—to convert energy from light to electricity. Light from the sun excites electrons in the semiconductor material flow into the conducting electrodes and create an electrical current.
Silicon has been the main semiconductor material used in solar cells since the 1950s because its semiconductor properties closely match the spectrum of sunlight and are relatively abundant and stable. However, the large silicon crystals used in conventional solar panels require multi-step manufacturing processes that use large amounts of energy, that means the cost is more expensive. In the process of finding an alternative to silicon, scientists have exploited the tunability of perovskites to create semiconductors with properties similar to those of silicon. Perovskite solar cells can be manufactured using simple additive deposition techniques, at a fraction of the cost and energy. Due to the compositional flexibility of perovskites, they can also be tuned to perfectly match the solar spectrum.
In 2012, researchers discovered discovered for the first time how to use lead halide perovskites as light-absorbing layers to create stable thin-film perovskite solar cells with photon-to-electron conversion efficiencies exceeding 10%. Since then, the conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells has skyrocketed, reaching a laboratory record of 25.2%. The researchers also combined perovskite solar cells with conventional silicon solar cells—the efficiency of these "perovskite-on-silicon" tandem cells is currently 29.1% (beyond the record of 27% for conventional silicon cells) and rising rapidly. With rapid improvements in cell efficiency, perovskite solar cells and perovskite tandem solar cells may soon become cheap, efficient alternatives to conventional silicon solar cells.
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Flexible perovskite solar cells
A perovskite solar cell (PSC) is a type of solar cell which includes a perovskite-structured compound, most commonly a hybrid organic-inorganic lead or tin halide-based material, as the light-harvesting active layer. Perovskite materials, such as methylammonium lead halides and all-inorganic cesium lead halide, are cheap to produce and simple to manufacture. Perovskites have inherent properties such as broad absorption spectrum, fast charge separation, long electron and hole transport distance, and long carrier separation lifetime, making them very promising solid-state solar cell materials.
A perovskite is any material with a crystal structure following the formula ABX3, which was first discovered as the mineral called perovskite, which consists of calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3). Perovskites have a nearly cubic structure and the chemical formula is ABO3. Typically perovskite compounds have the chemical formula ABX3, where "A" and "B" represent cations and X is an anion bound to both. A large number of different elements can combine to form a perovskite structure. Using this compositional flexibility, scientists can design perovskite crystals with a variety of physical, optical, and electrical properties. Today, perovskite crystals are found in ultrasonic machines, memory chips and current solar cells.
Perovskite tandem solar cells technology
Tandem solar cells are an important strategy to push the Shockley-Queisser (S-Q) efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells, it can be lower the cost per watt.
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