• Question: What is the effect of the use of methylammonium lead halides in relation to the increases in solar-to-electricity conversions efficiencies?

    Asked by to Hannah, James, Meggi, Olivia, Oli, Paul, Saiful on 3 Jan 2017. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Oli Weber

      Oli Weber answered on 3 Jan 2017:

      This is a very new technology and actually one I work on for my PhD! These materials can be used in solar cells that are much thinner and easier to make than what we use at the moment, which is mostly silicon. You can also put partly transparent methylammonium lead halide cells (often called ‘perovskite’ cells, after their type of crystal structure) straight on top of silicon ones to help boost the efficiency. However, these are still under development, so there’s a heck of a lot of work to be done to see if good results in the lab can be translated into a new commercial technology.

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