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Perovskite fever

Nature Physics volume 16, page 996 (2020)Cite this article

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But silicon and GaAs semiconductors may soon be set to step into a secondary role in solar power generation. Just over a decade ago, materials scientists discovered a perovskite material made of lead salts and organic molecules which achieved a photovoltaic efficiency of 3.9%. This was far below the roughly 25% achieved by silicon wafers, but research since then has led to rapid improvements. Today, these lead-halide perovskites are essentially as efficient as traditional semiconductor panels, while being cheaper to make, even in films a thousand times thinner. Tandem devices combining silicon and lead-halide cells now hold the photovoltaic efficiency record at around 28%, as they absorb light over a wider spectral range. The sensitive part of the spectrum can also be easily tuned.

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  1. Nature Physics https://www.nature.com/naturephysics

    Mark Buchanan

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Correspondence to Mark Buchanan.

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Buchanan, M. Perovskite fever. Nat. Phys. 16, 996 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-01060-8

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