A Mineral That Could Transform Solar Cells

A Yale research group has discovered a modification to a promising – but flawed – material, which could lead to a new generation of solar cells.

Perovskite, a mineral discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia in the 1830s, has in recent years become the rising star in the field of solar energy. Able to absorb a broad range of the light spectrum, and with properties that allow the carrier to be transferred over a comparatively long distance, perovskite has given solar cells the potential for very high power conversion efficiencies.

“The only thing is, it’s not very stable and it doesn’t maintain that efficiency for any appreciable amount of time,” said Andre Taylor, associate professor of chemical & environmental engineering. In his Transformative Materials & Devices lab, researchers have found a solution with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), an organic solvent that can add stability and efficiency to perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The results of their work are published in Nanoscale.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “A Mineral That Could Transform Solar Cells.”