The Photovoltaic: Solar Cell Materials

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CAMBRIDGE, England, Oct. 28, 2015 — Better understanding of singlet fission, an electrical process triggered by light in some materials, could enable solar cells twice as efficient as those used today. An international team led by researchers at the Most commercial solar cells are made from the inorganic crystalline silicon After uniformity is achieved by spin casting the mixture on a rotating substrate, the material is annealed. The annealing process reduces the material’s hardness, but Solar cells using upstart ‘perovskite’ materials will be shipping in three years, according to the head of University of Oxford spin-out company, Oxford PV. Photovoltaic perovskites were only invented recently. "It is the fastest-improving solar cell More significantly, the technology could reduce the cost of building solar panels. According to UConn Today, Professor Challa V. Kumar, who holds appointments in the departments of Chemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, and the Institute of Materials Over the last few years, a team of researchers led by Yang Yang, professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and member of the California NanoSystems Institute, has created advanced solar cells using perovskite, a material known for its Working with the compound, researchers discovered something unexpected about this new semiconductor material. Long thought to have a band gap (a semiconductor's defining characteristic) too large for device applications such as solar cells, the alloy's .

In materials like pentacene, the first stage – which can “It is a crucial step towards opening up new routes to highly efficiency solar cells.” The research was supported by the European LaserLab Consortium, Royal Society, and the Netherlands Annealing the material--heating then cooling it--reduces the Not only will the information obtained from neutrons help increase the efficiency of solar cells' performance, but they will also streamline the process of manufacturing them. Scientists are working to change this using various methods. One approach is to hybridize solar cells with different materials to capture more of the sun’s energy. Eunkyoung Kim and colleagues turned to a clear, conductive polymer known as PEDOT to try Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have used genetically engineered viruses to achieve a significant efficiency boost in a light-harvesting system used in solar cells. Nature has energy not with high-tech materials or microchips - but by .