Stabilised halide perovskites promise better solar panels

As well as inhibiting ion movement, a Purdue University-led research team has also found that halide perovskites can stack together to form heterostructures that would allow a device to perform more functions. The results have been published in Nature.

MORE ON MATERIALS

Halide perovskites are soft and flexible materials touted for use in solar panels but hamstrung so far by instability.

Researchers know that solar cells made out of perovskites perform as well as commercial solar cells made of silicon. Perovskites have the potential to be even more efficient than silicon because less energy is wasted when converting solar energy to electricity.

Another benefit of perovskites is that they can be processed from a solution into a thin film, thereby reducing costs and boosting quantities compared to silicon.

"There have been 60 years of a concerted effort making good silicon devices. There may have been only 10 years of concerted effort on perovskites and they're already as good as silicon, but they don't last," said Letian Dou, a Purdue assistant professor of chemical engineering.