Scientists Develop Transparent Electrode That Can Turn Windows into Solar Panels, and Discovery Promises to Revolutionize Renewable Energy Generation Worldwide

Creation Allows Solar Cells to Be Installed on Windows of Homes and Offices, Generating Electricity from Sunlight Without Wasting It

At Penn State University, in the United States, a group of researchers is undertaking a quite impressive project for solar energy charging. It is a new electrode that significantly improves the efficiency of this technology. This protagonist has made headlines around the world due to its technology, as it not only enhances efficiency but is also transparent and has gold-like energy conduction.

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The development of new ultrathin metal electrodes has allowed researchers to create semitransparent perovskite solar cells that are highly efficient and can be paired with traditional silicon cells to significantly boost the performance of both devices, an international team of scientists said. The research represents a step towards the development of completely transparent solar cells.

“Transparent solar cells could one day find a place in windows of homes and office buildings, generating electricity from sunlight that would otherwise be wasted”, said Kai Wang, assistant research professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State and co-author of the study. “This is a major step – we have finally managed to make efficient and semitransparent solar cells.”

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Traditional solar cells are made of silicon, but scientists believe they are approaching the limits of technology in March to create increasingly efficient solar cells. Perovskite cells offer a promising alternative, and stacking them on top of traditional cells can create more efficient tandem devices, the scientists said.

Perovskite Solar Cells Are a Major Advancement for Renewable Energy

“We have shown that we can make electrodes from a very thin atomic layer of almost pure gold”, said Shashank Priya, associate vice president for research and professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. “The thin layer of gold has high electrical conductivity and at the same time does not interfere with the cell’s ability to absorb sunlight.”

The perovskite solar cell that the team developed achieved 19.8% efficiency, a record for a semitransparent cell. And when combined with a traditional silicon solar cell, the tandem device achieved 28.3% efficiency, compared to 23.3% from the silicon cell alone. The scientists reported their findings in the journal Nano Energy.

“A 5% improvement in efficiency is huge”, Priya said. “That basically means you are converting about 50 watts more of sunlight for every square meter of solar cell material. Solar farms can consist of thousands of modules, so that adds up to a lot of electricity, and that is a major advancement.”

An Idea Worth Gold

In previous research, the ultrathin gold film proved promising as a transparent electrode in perovskite solar cells, but problems in creating a uniform layer resulted in poor conductivity, the scientists said.

The team found that chromium used as a seed layer allowed gold to form on top in a continuous ultrathin layer with good conductive properties.

“Normally, if you grow a thin layer of something like gold, the nanoparticles will clump together and form small islands”, said Dong Yang, assistant research professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. “Chromium has a large surface energy that provides a good place for the gold to grow on, and it really allows the gold to form a continuous thin film.”

Perovskite solar cells are composed of five layers and other materials tested, such as damaged or degraded transparent electrodes from the cells. The scientists said that the solar cells made with gold electrodes are stable and maintain high efficiency over time in laboratory tests.

“This advancement in tandem cell architecture design based on a transparent electrode offers an efficient route for transitioning to perovskite and tandem solar cells”, Yang said.

Tao Ye and Jungjin Yoon, postdoctoral researchers; and Yuchen Hou, a doctoral student, also contributed to this research from Penn State.

Xiaorong Zhang, Shaanxi Normal University, China; Shengzhong Liu, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Congcong Wu, Hubei University, China; and Mohan Sanghadasa, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, USA, also contributed to the research.

The Office of Naval Research, the Army Rapid Innovation Fund, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research provided funding for this research.