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Photocatalysis: HI-time for perovskites

Nature Energy volume 2, Article number: 16205 (2017) Cite this article

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Organolead halide perovskite solar absorbers demonstrate high photovoltaic efficiencies but they are notorious for their intolerance to water. Now, methylammonium lead iodide perovskites are used to harvest solar energy — in water — via photocatalytic generation of hydrogen from solutions of hydriodic acid.

The class of photoabsorbers based on organometal halide perovskites has seen the fastest efficiency rise of any photovoltaic technology, increasing from 3.8% in 20091 to more than 20% by 20152. The success of this new class of solar absorber, which can be obtained using even simple liquid-phase synthesis, is owed to the material's remarkably good electronic properties3. Another distinct advantage, which the new perovskite absorbers share with silicon, is that they typically rely only on highly scalable chemicals, making implementation at the terawatt scale possible, in principle4. On the other hand, while the lead content and the slightly too high bandgap of the organolead halide perovskites are probably manageable technological drawbacks, the more serious problem is the lack of stability in real-world photovoltaic application; the materials are sensitive to moisture, heat and perhaps even to illumination5. Now, writing in Nature Energy, Ki Tae Nam and colleagues at the Seoul National University, South Korea, show that hydrogen can be photocatalytically generated from aqueous solutions of hydriodic acid (HI) solution using methylammonium lead iodide perovskites (MAPbI3), providing an alternative approach to exploit perovskites' interactions with solar energy6.

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Figure 1: Photocatalytic generation of H2 from hydriodic acid using methylammonium lead iodide.

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  1. Peter C. K. Vesborg is at the Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) B. 312, Fysikvej DK-2800, Denmark.,

    Peter C. K. Vesborg

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Correspondence to Peter C. K. Vesborg.

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Vesborg, P. Photocatalysis: HI-time for perovskites. Nat Energy 2, 16205 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.205

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