In this article I want to continue the theme of renewable energy and talk about the advanced achievements of science in this field.

Specialists from Lomonosov Moscow state University have developed unique perovskite solar panels of a new generation. Russian scientists together with their colleagues from the Institute of advanced applied research (AIST, Japan) have created a unique method for obtaining a perovskite layer of potentially unlimited area. Experimental samples of laboratory elements demonstrated efficiency exceeding 17%.

Perovskite is the name of a rare mineral, calcium titanate. Perovskite solar cells are lighter and cheaper than silicon, their production is not toxic, and the elements themselves can be made thin and flexible.

Scientists from MSU together with their Japanese colleagues managed to solve one of the key problems of using perovskite solar panels associated with a decrease in efficiency when scaling to large surfaces. The unique method developed by them allows to receive solar panels of potentially unlimited area with high efficiency. Laboratory samples of standard area solar cells demonstrated an efficiency of more than 17%.

As noted in the study, until recently, one of the most significant limitations of technology perovskite solar cells is to reduce their effectiveness by increasing the area of the working surface: creating a panel of 10 square cm was a very difficult task realized, the maximum efficiency value of the obtained sample was 6-8% less than the same samples with an area of 0.1 sq cm, Together with colleagues from AIST researchers from MSU was able to solve this problem.

At the first stage, the laboratory staff discovered a new class of substances: reaction melts of polyiodides (RRP). Their use makes it possible to obtain hybrid perovskites without reaction byproducts and the need for solvents.

The next step in the development of the technology was made due to the introduction of a new method, in which RRP react directly on the surface of a pre-prepared two-layer substrate with precisely specified parameters (in terms of composition, layer thickness and area). As a result, a homogeneous film of the light-absorbing layer is formed, which can reach any size required from the production point of view without a significant drop in efficiency. An additional advantage of this method is the fact that the process of synthesizing substances requires minimal heating of the components (the reaction takes place at a temperature of + 40°C) and takes only a few minutes.

Prototypes of perovskite solar cells will be tested at the Abakan solar station En+ Group. Along with scientific research, research is being conducted on the possibilities of commercialization of the technology — in particular, the option of integrating solar cells into construction and finishing materials is being considered in order to use the surface of buildings and structures for the production of clean energy.

The key activity of En+ Group in the field of R & d is the development and launch of industrial production of new generation solar panels based on perovskite elements. This technology is the most dynamically developing in solar energy and in the future is able to radically expand the use of renewable energy sources.

The substance, known to scientists for more than a hundred years, only today, at the beginning of the XXI century, turned out to be a very promising material for the production of cheap and efficient solar cells. Perovskite, or calcium titanate, first found as a mineral by German geologist Gustav Roze in the Ural mountains in 1839, and named after count Lev Alexeevich Perovsky, a famous statesman and collector of minerals, the hero of the Patriotic war of 1812, was the most suitable candidate for the role of an alternative to silicon in the production of solar cells.

As a substance, calcium titanate until recently was widely used only as a dielectric of multilayer ceramic capacitors. And now they are trying to use it to build high-efficiency solar cells, because it turned out that this material perfectly absorbs light.

Conventional, long-established, silicon solar cells at a thickness of 180 microns absorb as much light as perovskite will absorb at a thickness of only 1 micron. Perovskite as well as silicon is a semiconductor, and about as efficiently transmits an electric charge under the influence of light, but the spectrum of light converted into electricity in perovskite is wider than that of silicon.

The structure of the crystalline substance of calcium titanate is identical to the structure of the mineral perovskite, and therefore the name is the same. And it is this substance that is today on one of the leading places in the ranking of ways to optimize for solar energy.

Thus, the prospects for perovskite are enormous, and who knows, there may be not far off the days when every house and every car will be equipped with perovskite batteries, since it will no longer be economically profitable and expedient to pollute the environment with the products of burning fossil fuels.

Source: https://www.msu.ru/science/main_themes/uchenye-iz-mgu-predlozhili-sposob-masshtabirovaniya-solnechnykh-batarey.html