Global electricity use is increasing rapidly and must be addressed sustainably.
Global electricity use is increasing rapidly and must be addressed sustainably. Developing new materials could give us much more efficient solar cell materials than at present; materials so thin and flexible that they could encase anything from mobile phones or entire buildings. Using computer simulation and machine learning, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now taken an important step towards understanding and handling halide perovskites, among the most promising but notoriously enigmatic materials.
Electricity use is constantly increasing globally and, according to the International Energy Agency, its proportion of the world’s total energy consumption is expected to exceed 50 per cent in 25 years, compared to the current 20 per cent.
“To meet the demand, there is a significant and growing need for new, environmentally friendly and efficient energy conversion methods, such as more efficient solar cells. Our findings are essential to engineer and control one of the most promising solar cell materials for optimal utilisation. It’s very exciting that we now have simulation methods that can answer questions that were unresolved just a few years ago,” says Julia Wiktor, the study’s principal investigator and an associate professor at Chalmers.
Read More: Chalmers University of Technology
Image: Promising solar cell material: Formamidinium lead iodide is considered one of the best-performing materials in the halide perovskite group, since it has promising properties for future solar cell technologies. New findings from Chalmers can now shed light on its structure; this is crucial if we are to engineer and control the material. (Illustration Credit: Julia Wiktor, Chalmers)
