A material that will revolutionize solar cell technology - by @dcrypto

Solar energy is very effective. Solar cells are usually made of silicon which is efficient at observing light, but these cells or panels are expensive to fabricate. Since it is a renewable energy, it is a very good idea to implement solar panels everywhere. However, due to excessive investment, many people are not coming forward to purchase solar panels and use solar energy, which is not only a great natural source but also very lucrative.

To solve this issue, researchers from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University have been working so that silicon could be replaced by another material which is inexpensive. They came up with a material that is made from perovskite structures that works excellent as a layer of a solar cell to harvest light, yet it is inexpensive than silicon. This material is usually found in the earth which is composed of minerals such as calcium, oxygen, and titanium in a very particular molecular arrangement. This substance can be dissolved easily, and spray coated on the substrate.

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However, as everything has few drawbacks, it also has disadvantages such as it gets worse or damaged on exposure to heat, and unstable. Therefore, a team of Prof. Yabing Qi of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University developed devices which are efficient, stable, and inexpensive. The material has three main advantages over others.

First, it is completely inorganic, organic components are usually not thermostable and degrade under heat. Since solar cells can get very hot in the sun, heat stability is crucial. Secondly, the OIST researchers doped their new cells with manganese in order to improve their performance. Thirdly, in these solar cells, the electrodes that transport current between the solar cells and external wires are made of carbon, rather than of the usual gold.
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Since they adopted inorganic materials, heat harvesting ability is relatively lesser. To solve this problem, they included manganese which helps to absorb more heat, thereby electricity. It increases the ability to harvest light. Moreover, gold is being used to transport current, here they used carbon as it relatively cheaper to produce that requires no specialist equipment.

This idea of replacing silicon with this inorganic perovskite solar cells seems to be a very lucrative idea. Nevertheless, researchers are working to understand their efficiency and durability. I hope the cheaper material will come in future that allows all of us to effectively use solar energy.