Engineers at Rice University have created what they call microscopic seeds for the growth of incredibly uniform and very energy-efficient two-dimensional pervaskite crystals when harvesting the electricity of the sunlight. Perovskites are a class of materials extremely useful in the construction of solar panels and are investigated as a potential replacement for conventional solar panel materials. The halide perovskites are an organic material made from abundant and inexpensive ingredients.
Engineers at the University of Rice used a method of seeded growth that responds to both performance and production problems with the photovoltaic technology of PEROVSKITE Halide Perovskite in the past. The engineers of the Rice Brown School of Engineering have published a study recently describing how to make the seeds and use them to develop homogeneous thin films. This type of thin film is a very sought after material which consists of uniformly thick layers.
Lab tests have proven that photovoltaic devices made from thin films are both efficient and reliable, which lacked earlier devices from 3D or 2D Perovskites. Co-study author of Aditya Mohite says the team has proposed a method where they can adapt the properties of macroscopic movies by first adapting what they have put in the solution. Mohite stated that you could come to something very homogeneous in size and properties, leading to increased efficiency by controlling what is put in the solution.
The researchers were able to obtain an efficiency of the device almost from the tip of the technology for the 2D case of 17% without optimization and the team believes that they can improve in several ways. Homogeneous films should lead to high efficiency optoelectronic devices and relevant technological stability. The method of growth of rice developed scenes produces stable high efficiency photovoltaic films, preserving more than 97% of their maximum efficiency after 800 hours of lighting without thermal management.