Please bear with us while we decide what's best for the future of humanity :)
We're currently exploring three research directions:
1. Environmental Degradation
Unlike traditional solar panels, made of silicone, pervoskites are soft ionic materials held together by relatively weak chemical bonds. This means when exposed to real-world environments perovskite is often way more volatile and can decompose much faster.
Perovskite's main threats are:
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Moisture and humidity
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Constant exposure to high temperatures (ironic right? You know because they're solar panels and they sit under the sun all day)
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AND Chemical reactions between UV light and Oxygen
In picking this direction we'd be choosing one or more of these weak spots and making a resistant perovskite cell.
2. Energy Efficiency
Traditional solar cells convert around 26% of the sunlight they absorb into usable energy.
Perovskites have reached much higher numbers in the labs, reaching up to 34%. But the theoretical limit of a perovskite can get up to 45% and even 50% conversion.
The reason perovskites are so much more productive is because they're tunable. If one material doesn't work, you can switch it out. If it works better in higher doses you can up the amount used, or decrease it if its better in smaller doses.
In picking this direction we'd be looking to maximise the amount of sunlight our perovskite cell converts to energy.
3. Material Composition & Construction
Just like silicone isn't the same thing as a solar panel, perovskite isn't the same thing as a perovskite solar cell.
*If you don't know what a perovskite is now would be a good time to do a quick look over our "What's Perovskite page"
The way the components and layers of a perovskite solar cell are organised and constructed makes a big difference in both the environmental degredation and the energy efficiency of the cell.
You're probably wondering, well if this research direction crosses off both degredation and efficiency, why don't you just automatically go with this one?
Well, material composition is only a very small part of addressing degredation and efficiency. It's ONE OF, BUT NOT THE ONLY reason cells degrade and ONE OF, BUT NOT THE ONLY reason perovskite cells still haven't reached their potential.
In picking this direction we'd be taking a broader approach to addressing both cell degradation and energy efficiency, through the specific lens of cell material composition and construction.
Keeping up with team CHARGE
Here's where we're headed
Literature Review & Pick a research direction
Design our research plan
Defend research plan
Lab training and simulations
Research
More research
Lots more research
Draft thesis
Defend thesis
GEMS conferences & present findings