Scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the UK are investigating electron dynamics in perovskite solar cells in an effort to understand why such devices demonstrate such impressive conversion efficiency despite their thermal stability and durability problems.

The researchers said the morphology of the perovskite materials used for PV applications was not ideal for understanding the spatiotemporal charge-carrier dynamics which take place within them when photons are absorbed by methylammonium lead-iodide perovskite films.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed highly efficient, large-area and flexible perovskite-based near-infrared LEDs for new wearable device technologies.

The team, led by Tan Zhi Kuang from the Department of Chemistry and the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), has developed high-efficiency near-infrared LEDs which can cover an area of 900 mm² using low-cost solution-processing methods. This is several orders of magnitude larger than the sizes achieved in previous reports, and opens up a range of new applications.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego and UCLA, Soochow University and Westlake University in China, and Marmara University in Turkey, have examined the surface defect-deactivation mechanism in perovskite solar cells using molecules found in tea, coffee and chocolate.

The collaborative team set out to delineate the molecular arrangements that constructively deactivate the surface defects in perovskite solar-cells. Highly-efficient metal-halide perovskite solar cells to date consist of polycrystalline perovskite film that often contains a high density of defects on the surface. These imperfections are the points for charge recombination, which is a major limiting factor in power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of perovskite solar cells. However, due to the ionic nature of the perovskite lattice, these defects can be passivated by surface treatment of perovskite with a small molecule.

Scientists from the University at Buffalo have created thin films made from barium zirconium sulfide (BaZrS₃), a category of materials known as chalcogenide perovskites, and confirmed that it has impressive electronic and optical properties previously predicted by theorists.

The films reportedly combine exceptionally strong light absorption with good charge transport — two qualities that make them ideal for applications such as photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).