Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin

Perovskite and silicon are proving to be a formidable duo in the world of solar cells, and now they’ve hit a new record efficiency. A team at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have developed solar cells with an efficiency of over 32%.

Silicon has long been the gold standard for solar cells, but it’s approaching its limit. Perovskite is emerging as a promising partner, and now engineers have achieved a new efficiency record for this kind of tandem solar cell – almost 30 percent.

Solar cells are constantly improving on the road to maximum efficiency. Now, three records have been broken by two different devices, including one that pushes the highest overall solar conversion efficiency towards the 50-percent mark.

For a few years scientists have predicted a fifth kind of phosphorus should be possible, but it had yet to be confirmed. Now, researchers in Germany have managed to show that blue phosphorus does exist, and mapped out its different properties.

A tiny structure called the fovea centralis may be the key to a huge boost in solar cell efficiency, thanks to work by a team of scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light that adapted the natural design into silicon as a light trap.

Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have found that graphene retains its remarkable electrical conductive properties even when it is in close contact with materials like glass and silicon. It could be a key discovery for the development of better thin-film solar cells.