The commercial viability of Perovskita solar panels is getting closer, thanks to the different solutions over time. However, there is still a big problem to solve to be able to install them, but a team of engineers has managed to solve using titanium.
Short. Researchers from the Technological Institute of Georgia in the United States They have achieved That Perovskita’s solar cells are more stable and support high temperatures. The solution was to incorporate titanium into one of the layers.
The problem. The incorporation of Perovskita panels to the market has been a challenge because they do not last long when they are exposed to high temperatures. The reason is in one of its internal layers, known as the hollow transport layer (HTL), which allows the movement of electricity within it. This layer, usually made of a material called spiro-feet, begins to crystallize and lose efficiency when the temperature exceeds 70ºC.
The solution. The technique used In research is steam phase infiltration (VPI). In this process, the solar cell is exposed to a titanium gas in a low vacuum environment. This allows titanium oxide/hydroxide (Tiox) to integrate into the HTL layer of the solar cell. In this way, titanium acts as a thermal stabilizer, preventing it from crystallizing and ensuring that panel efficiency is not degraded by heat. As a result, solar cells have preserved more than 80% of their original efficiency after 200 hours of 75ºC tests.
An alternative to silicon. The study of the study to continue working the Perovskita panels and not those of silicon has been for several reasons. On the one hand, a cost of costs and energy consumption because silicon cells are much more expensive than those of Perovskita. On the other hand, the study has been conducted with financing from the Office of Solar Energy Technologies of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the United States Energy Department, so alternatives have been sought for do not depend on Chinain a context of Tariff war.
More solutions for Perovskitas. The American study is not the only one who is looking for alternatives in this line. An investigation in the United Kingdom has managed to go one step further developing a method that makes solar cells more resistant to external factors such as humidity, heat and physical wear.
Forecasts Until now the technology developed by the American engineers group is in patent. Commercial implementation will be pending if researchers manage to find partners and the future of Solar energy in the United States.
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