MIT Scientists Develop a Solar Cell with 25.2% Efficiency

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have produced a perovskite solar cell which they claim has a power conversion efficiency of 25.2 per cent. The scientists achieved this via the chemical bath deposition method (CBD), which adds a special conductive layer of tin dioxide bonded between the conductive layer and the perovskite material.

According to the researchers, “if the conductive layer is directly attached to the perovskite itself, the electrons and their counterparts, called holes, simply recombine on the spot and no current flows.” If this intermediate layer separates the perovskite and the conductive layer, the latter lets the electrons through and prevents the recombination.

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The conversion efficiency of the solar cell was shown through tiny lab-scale devices. “The kind of insights we provide in this paper, and some of the tricks we provide, could potentially be applied to the methods that people are now developing for large-scale, manufacturable perovskite cells, and therefore boost those efficiencies,” said research author Moungi Bawendi.

“What we’re demonstrating is that even with a single active layer, we can make efficiencies that threaten silicon, and hopefully within punching distance of gallium arsenide,” stated MIT scientist Jason Yoo. “And both of those technologies have been around for much longer than perovskites have.”