Energy & Industry / Energy

Perovskite Solar Cells

Miyasaka's team builds the first solar cell with a lead-halide perovskite in 2009 (3.8%); solid-state versions reach 10.9% in 2012, and single-junction cells reached about 27% by 2025.

Kojima, Teshima, Shirai and Miyasaka used CH3NH3PbI3 as the light absorber in a dye-sensitised cell with a liquid electrolyte in 2009. In 2012 Lee, Snaith and colleagues built a solution-processed solid-state cell with the perovskite on an inert mesoporous alumina scaffold and reached 10.9%. The crystals form from solution at low temperature, which makes them cheap, but moisture sensitivity and the lead content are still open problems; stacked on silicon, they now give tandem cells above 34%.