A team of scientists and engineers led by Letian Dou, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Purdue University, has developed a new material that removes the need for lead in solar cells. In 2009 it was found that using the mineral perovskite in solar cells can increase the energy generated by up to 10%. Current solar panels produce around 17% energy on average, perovskite can produce up to 28%.
The biggest drawback of the original inorganic perovskite solar cells is the use of water-soluble lead. This poses a hazard to human health and the environment.
The new cells the team at Purdue have developed incorporate both organic and inorganic materials that remove the need for lead and forms a hybrid structure and also improves stability.
As Dou states: “These structures are very exciting. The sandwich structures are like semiconductor quantum wells that are widely used today in many electronic and optoelectronic devices, but they are much easier to produce and more tolerant to defects.”
Yao Gao, lead author of the research published in Nature, said not only do the new hybrid perovskite materials perform better, but they are also cheaper than the original inorganic models. The new materials have also been tested in other forms of electronic devices. Gao said the new materials design could serve as a blueprint for many other functional hybrid materials.
Gao goes on to report:
Solar cells, as many people have demonstrated, can be highly efficient. With our new technology, we can make the hybrid perovskite materials intrinsically more stable. By replacing the toxic lead, these new materials are better for the environment and can also be safely used for bioelectronics sensors on the body.
With the combination of being easier to produce and being better for the environment hopefully, this will accelerate a more widespread use of solar panels. This is surely an exciting discovery by the team at Purdue!
