The Perovskite-Info newsletter

AMOLF researchers Lukas Helmbrecht and Wim Noorduin have developed a reactive ink that can be painted on an equally reactive canvas. The ink reacts with the material on the canvas to become a semiconductor that emits colored light, an essential part of electronic components such as LEDs.

Schematic illustration showing the fabrication of a spatially patterned perovskite film. Image from Advanced Materials

The AMOLF team's new ion exchange lithography technique enables one to paint a canvas by making the canvas itself change to a different color instead of brushing paint on it. In this technique, the ‘ink’ reacts with the ‘canvas’ by means of ion exchange. To demonstrate the technique, the team used it to airbrush an image of Madame Curie. “I find it fascinating to see: the green image forms as soon as you start spraying, despite both the ink and the canvas being colorless”, said Helmbrecht.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Fuzhou University have reported a perovskite solar cell with an electron transport layer (ETL) based on Tin(IV) oxide (SnO₂) and crystalline polymeric carbon nitrides (cPCN).

The team explained that the modification of the SnO₂ layer with the cPCN is key to avoiding undesirable current-voltage hysteresis, which is responsible for reducing the cell's stability. This phenomenon tends to occur in electrical systems when current or voltage changes and the effects of the changes are delayed. It is dependent on the composition of the material, and ion migration and non-radiative recombination near interfaces are often considered responsible for the effect.

Hunt Perovskite Technologies (HPT) recently revealed that it has been selected for an award of $2.5 million in financing from the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite Funding Program.

In addition, HPT is also co-Principle Investigator and collaborative partner in two other DOE perovskite funding award selections, including a $1.5 million award to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and a $1.25 million award to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).