Less costly solar cells could be en route thanks to new products

• New solar cell devices that are more affordable and easier to make might quickly make their means to market thanks to products made at Imperial College London.

Traditional solar cells are made from silicon, which has excellent efficiency and stability, yet is relatively expensive to make and also can just be produced in stiff panels.

Perovskite solar cells provide an interesting option; they can be published from inks, making them inexpensive, high effectiveness, thin, lightweight and also versatile. However, they have actually trailed behind silicon solar cells in effectiveness as well as, importantly, stability, breaking down under normal environmental problems.

New metal-containing materials called ferrocenes can help with these issues. Researchers from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have actually included Imperial-made ferrocenes into perovskite solar cells, vastly boosting their performance and stability. The results are released today in the journal Science.

Co-lead author Professor Nicholas Long, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, stated: "Silicon cells are efficient yet expensive, and we quickly require new solar energy gadgets to increase the transition to renewable resource. Stable as well as effective perovskite cells could ultimately permit solar energy to be made use of in more applications-- from powering the establishing globe to charging a new generation of wearable tools.

" Our partnership with associates in Hong Kong was beautifully serendipitous, arising after I gave a talk regarding new ferrocene compounds and also satisfied Dr. Zonglong Zhu from CityU, who asked me to send over some samples. Within a couple of months, the CityU group told us the results were interesting, as well as asked us to send even more examples, starting a study program that has actually led to perovskite tools that are both much more effective and also much more stable."