The two spray heads. Picture by Alex Barrows.
Discovery could help cut the cost of solar electricity Perovskite is a promising new material for solar cells, combing high efficiency with low materials costs Spray-painting method could be used in high volume manufacturing - A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield is the first to fabricate perovskite solar cells using a spray-painting process - a discovery that could help cut the cost of solar electricity. Experts from the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have previously used the spray-painting method to produce solar cells using organic semiconductors - but using perovskite is a major step forward. Efficient organometal halide perovskite based photovoltaics were first demonstrated in 2012. They are now a very promising new material for solar cells as they combine high efficiency with low materials costs. The spray-painting process wastes very little of the perovskite material and can be scaled to high volume manufacturing - similar to applying paint to cars and graphic printing. Lead researcher Professor David Lidzey said: "There is a lot of excitement around perovskite based photovoltaics. "Remarkably, this class of material offers the potential to combine the high performance of mature solar cell technologies with the low embedded energy costs of production of organic photovoltaics." While most solar cells are manufactured using energy intensive materials like silicon, perovskites, by comparison, requires much less energy to make.
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