There was a bit of a flutter online in late July 2014 about solar cell research and perovskite, a material that could replace silicon therefore making solar cells more affordable, which hopefully would lead to greater adoption of the technology. Happily, the publishers of the study seem to have reissued their news release (h/t Aug. 11, 2014 news item on Nanwerk).

From the Wiley online press release Nr. 29/2014,

Textile solar cells are an ideal power source for small electronic devices incorporated into clothing. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Chinese scientists have now introduced novel solar cells in the form of fibers that can be woven into a textile. The flexible, coaxial cells are based on a perovskite material and carbon nanotubes; they stand out due to their excellent energy conversion efficiency of 3.3 % and their low production cost.

The dilemma for solar cells: they are either inexpensive and inefficient, or they have a reasonable efficiency and are very expensive. One solution may come from solar cells made of perovskite materials, which are less expensive than silicon and do not require any expensive additives. Perovskites are materials with a special crystal structure that is like that of perovskite, a calcium titanate. These structures are often semiconductors and absorb light relatively efficiently. Most importantly, they can move electrons excited by light for long distances within the crystal lattice before they return to their energetic ground state and take up a solid position – a property that is very important in solar cells.

A team led by Hisheng Peng at Fudan University in Shanghai has now developed perovskite solar cells in the form of flexible fibers that can be woven into electronic textiles. Their production process is relatively simple and inexpensive because it uses a solution-based process to build up the layers.

The anode is a fine stainless steel wire coated with a compact n-semiconducting titanium dioxide layer. A layer of porous nanocrystalline titanium dioxide is deposited on top of this. This provides a large surface area for the subsequent deposition of the perovskite material CH3NH3PbI3. This is followed by a layer made of a special organic material. Finally a transparent layer of aligned carbon nanotubes is continuously wound over the whole thing to act as the cathode. The resulting fiber is so fine and flexible that it can be woven into textiles.

The perovskite layer absorbs light, that excites electrons and sets them free, causing a charge separation between the electrons and the formally positively charged “holes” The electrons enter the conducting band of the compact titanium dioxide layer and move to the anode. The “holes” are captured by the organic layer. The large surface area and the high electrical conductivity of the carbon nanotube cathode aid in the rapid conduction of the charges with high photoelectric currents. The fiber solar cell can attain an energy conversion efficiency of 3.3 %, exceeding that of all previous coaxial fiber solar cells made with either dyes or polymers.

Here’s an image used in the press release illustrating the new fiber,

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Integrating Perovskite Solar Cells into a Flexible Fiber by Longbin Qiu, Jue Deng, Xin Lu, Zhibin Yang, and Prof. Huisheng Peng. Angewandte Chemie International Edition DOI: 10.1002/anie.201404973 Article first published online: 22 JUL 2014

© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

This paper is behind a paywall.

I found a second item about perovskite and solar cells in a May 16, 2014 article by Vicki Marshall for Chemistry World which discussed some research in the UK (Note: Links have been removed),

A lead-free and non-toxic alternative to current perovskite solar-cell technology has been reported by researchers in the UK: tin halide perovskite solar cells. They are also cheaper to manufacture than the silicon solar cells currently dominating the market.

Nakita Noel, part of Henry Snaith’s research team at the University of Oxford, describes how perovskite materials have caused a bit of a whirlwind since they came out in 2009: ‘Everybody that’s working in the solar community is looking to beat silicon.’ Despite the high efficiency of conventional crystalline silicon solar cells (around 20%), high production and installation costs decrease their economic feasibility and widespread use.

The challenge to find a cheaper alternative led to the development of perovskite-based solar cells, as organic–inorganic metal trihalide perovskites have both abundant and cheap starting materials. However, the presence of lead in some semiconductors could create toxicology issues in the future. As Noel puts it ‘every conference you present at somebody is bound to put up their hand and ask “What about the lead – isn’t this toxic?”’

…

Brian Hardin, co-founder of PLANT PV, US, and an expert in new materials for photovoltaic cells, says the study ‘should be considered a seminal work on alternative perovskites and is extremely valuable to the field as they look to better understand how changes in chemistry affect solar cell performance and stability.’

Here’s a link to and a citation for the UK researchers’ paper,

Lead-free organic–inorganic tin halide perovskites for photovoltaic applications by Nakita K. Noel, Samuel D. Stranks, Antonio Abate, Christian Wehrenfennig, Simone Guarnera, Amir-Abbas Haghighirad, Aditya Sadhana, Giles E. Eperon, Sandeep K. Pathak, Michael B. Johnston, Annamaria Petrozza, Laura M. Herza, and Henry J. Snaith. Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C4EE01076K First published online 01 May 2014

This article was open access until June 27, 2014 but now it is behind a paywall.

I notice there’s no mention of lead in the materials describing the research paper from the Chinese scientists. Perhaps they were working with lead-free materials.