IIT Guwahati Makes 20% More Efficient, Recyclable Solar Cells That Are Cheaper
To the unaware, today, inorganic solar cells made using silicon are widely used in solar applications. However, the hardware made using this material can only be made via high-temperature processing that makes the solar panels expensive.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati have created hybrid perovskite-based photovoltaic devices that are highly efficient, cost-effective, easy to mass-produce and recyclable too, according to IANS report.
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To the unaware, perovskite-based semiconducting devices are today considered to be the gold standard as they are affordable, easy to manufacture and arenĄ¯t affected by material availability shortage.
IIT Guwahati researchers developed the photovoltaic devices while achieving over 21 percent power conversion efficiencies by making use of economical solution-based photovoltaic device processing techniques at regular room temperatures, while also realising high thermal, ambient and optical stability.
To the unaware, today, inorganic solar cells made using silicon are widely used in solar applications. However, the hardware made using this material can only be made via high-temperature processing that makes the solar panels expensive.
WhatĄ¯s more, is that recycling these panels is another arduous process that is also hazardous. On the other hand, perovskite-based panels are better at recycling and efficient in manufacturing but they're extremely unstable towards ambient conditions such as humidity and oxygen.
However, IIT-Guwahati researchers have managed to fix the instability using charged conjugated polymers incorporated in photovoltaic devices as a passivation molecule to get defect-free high-quality solar cell devices.
They possess high efficiency of 20.17 percent with stellar reproducibility. The method also promises to improve long-term device stability by bettering the hydrophobicity of the perovskite layer.
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India Science Wire
In another study by the team, they demonstrated the development of solution-processed multi-dimensional graded perovskite and the precise role of surface re-crystallisation to achieve very high efficiencies, stability, economical scalability by mitigating the perovskite defects.
Researchers concluded that the strategies being developed have the potential to address the renewable energy challenges surrounding large-scale commercial fabrication of efficient and stable solar panels.
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