ORGANOMETAL HALIDE PEROVSKITE PHOTOVOLTAICS: A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

Abstract

The sun finds a diamond in the rough, which is the organo-metal halide perovskite. Thanks to exceptional optoelectronic characteristics, solar cells employing perovskite demonstrated first a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.7% in the middle of 2012, which rose steeply to an amazing 16% at the end of 2013. Perovskite-based photovoltaics have several advantages over conventional semiconductor p-n junction devices because high efficiency can be achieved from sub-micrometer-thick very cheap perovskite layers that can be formed by solution processing at temperatures below 150°C, rendering the perovskite solar cell versatile in its application. If photo- and thermal stability as well as tolerance to humidity can be achieved, commercial application on the large scale appear to be feasible.