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					</table><p>Researchers at the <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Carolina State University</a> have developed RoboMapper, a robot designed to identify new perovskite materials with enhanced stability and solar cell efficiency.</p>
<p>While perovskite materials are being studied as the potential substitute for the largely used silicon, perovskite tend to degrade when exposed to continuous intense sunlight. With an aim to maintain the stability in perovskite materials, the researchers, through their new work, enabled RoboMapper to perform experiments that could yield a range of new semiconductor materials.</p>
<p>The researchers designed their robot to make alloys using specific elements and conducted tests to identify whether an alloy was suitable for tandem solar cells.</p>
<p>The study titled ‘Sustainable Materials Acceleration Platform Reveals Stable and Efficient Wide Bandgap Metal Halide Perovskite Alloys’ was published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/matter/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matter</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers were looking to determine whether the alloy comes with a crystalline structure similar to that of a perovskite material and if it had a bandgap. The robot also performed experiments to understand the degradation level of the alloy when exposed to intense light.</p>
<p>Based on the encoded instructions, RoboMapper created samples of 150 varying alloy compositions and then conducted optical spectroscopy and X-ray structural assessments on these samples.</p>
<p>Using the data collected during these experiments, the researchers developed a computational model to derive a particular alloy composition that they claimed to be the best combination of desired attributes.</p>
<p>Aram Amassian, corresponding author of the paper and a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University, said, “The material we identified using RoboMapper turned out to be more efficient at converting light into electricity in solar cell devices. Our conventional techniques validated the results from RoboMapper. The robot also automates the process but places dozens of samples on each chip by miniaturizing the material samples with the help of modern printing. It still performs each step of the data collection process but does so for multiple materials in parallel, saving time and energy.”</p>
<p>Environmental economist Lucía Serrano-Luján, co-author of the paper and a researcher at Rey Juan Carlos University and the Technical University of Cartagena, said, the RoboMapper’s ability to streamline the data collection process by placing dozens of materials on the same chip reduced greenhouse gas emissions tenfold.</p>
<p>In another study, scientists at the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay claimed to have <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/iit-26-efficiency-perovskite-silicon-solar-cell" target="_blank" rel="noopener">achieved</a> a record power conversion efficiency of over 26% for a 4-terminal silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/efficiency-perovskite-silicon-tandem-solar-cells" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell with a record energy conversion efficiency of 33.2%.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gourav Mishra</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gourav,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav.</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="89" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gourav</a> is a staff reporter with Mercom India with over six years of experience in various roles with NewsX, The New Indian Express, IBTimes India, and U.S., Republic, and Analytics India Magazine. Gourav has a Master&#8217;s in journalism from Jain University, Bengaluru. <a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav Mishra</a></div>
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Researchers Develop Robot to Study Degradation in Perovskite Solar Cells


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					</table><p><u><a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Carolina State University</a></u> scientists have discovered that channeling ions into defined pathways in perovskite materials improves the stability and operational performance of perovskite solar cells.</p>
<p>The discovery paves the way for a new generation of lighter, more flexible, and more efficient solar cell technologies suitable for practical use.</p>
<p>The study titled ‘A multiscale ion diffusion framework sheds light on the diffusion–stability–hysteresis nexus in metal halide perovskites’ is published in <u><a href="https://www.nature.com/nmat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature Materials</a></u> journal.</p>
<p>In the experiment, the scientists studied the grain boundaries in perovskite materials. They found that while ‘growing’ a perovskite, the material forms a series of crystals or grains.</p>
<p>The generation of charges for electric current and absorption of light is possible in perovskite through these grains.</p>
<p>However, they observed that the positioning of grains is much more likely to be disoriented in the material, and such an area where grains touch each other is termed to be grain boundary. They found that perovskites are ionic materials and the migration of ions results in certain chemical and structural changes in the material itself.</p>
<p>According to Aram Amassian, the corresponding author of the study, strengthening the grain boundaries helps understand what needs to be done to make perovskites more stable and efficient.</p>
<p>The first author of the study, Masoud Ghasemi said, “What we’ve found is that grains are better protected from impairment when the ions move predominantly along the grain boundary. Designing stronger grain boundaries that protect the grains is essential to block migrating ions and other harmful species like oxygen from entering the grains, mitigating problematic chemical and structural changes in the material.”</p>
<p>The researchers discovered that when a voltage is applied to a perovskite, ions migrate through the material and an increase in this activity makes the material unstable and inefficient.</p>
<p>The team claimed that the migration of ions could be one of the potential reasons stopping the achievement of long-term operational stability in perovskite solar cells.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Perovskite-1.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-50048 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Perovskite-1.png" alt="Perovskite 1" width="602" height="417" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Perovskite-1.png 602w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Perovskite-1-300x208.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Perovskite-1-600x416.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px" /></a></p>
<p>Figure 1: Migration of ions in perovskite material. Source: NC State University</p>
<p>“This is an important insight because there are established techniques we can use to engineer perovskite materials and their grain boundaries. Observing the grain boundaries opens the door to a host of new technologies, such as flexible, lightweight solar cells, or layered solar cells (known as <a href="https://mercomindia.com/researchers-claim-solar-cell-shows-27-4-efficiency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tandems</a>) that can be far more efficient than the solar harvesting technology used today in so-called solar farms,” Amassian said.</p>
<p>The work may also inform the development of more efficient energy storage technologies.</p>
<p>In an experiment performed by experts at Germany’s Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, experts claimed to have <a href="https://mercomindia.com/tandem-solar-cell-achieves-world-conversion-efficiency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">achieved</a> 32.5% conversion efficiency in tandem solar cells, the highest ever for this technology.</p>
<p>Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee <a href="https://mercomindia.com/iit-roorkee-claim-17-efficiency-perovskite-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a prototype of a low-cost, high-quality perovskite solar cell that achieved a stable conversion efficiency of 17.05%. The experts said that their perovskite solar cell leads to the optimum phase distribution, enlarged grain size, and comes with enhanced crystallinity.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gourav Mishra</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gourav,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav.</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WhatsApp-Image-2022-04-06-at-6.37.25-PM-1-1.jpeg" width="89" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gourav</a> is a staff reporter with Mercom India with over six years of experience in various roles with NewsX, The New Indian Express, IBTimes India, and U.S., Republic, and Analytics India Magazine. Gourav has a Master&#8217;s in journalism from Jain University, Bengaluru. <a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gourav-mishra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gourav Mishra</a></div>
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Channeling Ions into Defined Pathways Boosts Perovskites’ Performance

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