Rice University engineers have created microscopic seeds for growing remarkably uniform 2D perovskite crystals that are both stable and highly efficient at harvesting electricity from sunlight.
Rice University engineers have created microscopic seeds for growing remarkably uniform 2D perovskite crystals that are both stable and highly efficient at harvesting electricity from sunlight.
Halide perovskites are organic materials made from abundant, inexpensive ingredients, and Rice’s seeded growth method addresses both performance and production issues that have held back halide perovskite photovoltaic technology.
In a study published online in Advanced Materials, chemical engineers from Rice’s Brown School of Engineering describe how to make the seeds and use them to grow homogenous thin films, highly sought materials comprised of uniformly thick layers. In laboratory tests, photovoltaic devices made from the films proved both efficient and reliable, a previously problematic combination for devices made from either 3D or 2D perovskites.
“We’ve come up with a method where you can really tailor the properties of the macroscopic films by first tailoring what you put into solution,” said study co-author Aditya Mohite, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice. “You can arrive at something that is very homogeneous in its size and properties, and that leads to higher efficiency. We got almost state-of-the-art device efficiency for the 2D case of 17%, and that was without optimization. We think we can improve on that in several ways.”
Read more at: Rice University
Rice University chemical engineering graduate student Siraj Sidhik holds a container of 2D perovskite "seeds" (left) and a smaller vial containing a solution of dissolved seeds that can be used to produce thin films for use in highly efficient optoelectronic devices like high efficiency solar panels. (Photo Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
