Research at Sheffield University has taken a significant step towards commercialising perovskite solar cells.

Sheffield University has been developing a low-cost and efficient technique to produce perovskite solar cells: ultra-sonic spray-coating.

Perovskite is a transparent, inexpensive, and non-toxic solar cell which can be put onto glass in a range of colours, offering its customers an energy producing stained-glass window. Up until now, it had to be “printed” onto the glass using a thin film, and involved either a spin coater or high-vacuum chambers – neither scalable solutions.

Demand for the material is increasing, as they have been shown to increase power conversion up to 15% to 19%, far surpassing the rates of currently available solar cells.

Perovskite is based on intellectual property developed at Oxford by professor Henry Snaith. Oxford University spun out Oxford PV to exploit the technology in 2011.

Alex Barrows, a PhD student in David Lidzey’s research group, said : “It’s a demonstration that these materials can work well using techniques that you can use in industry. Hopefully it will encourage other people to use industrially applicable techniques.”