Researchers achieve breakthrough development in solar technology — here's what it could mean for the future of clean energy

According to Interesting Engineering, researchers at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, led by Professor Hobeom Kim, developed a new passivation process that allows formamidinium lead iodide perovskite solar cells to reach over 24% power conversion efficiency.

Before moving on, we should briefly explain what a perovskite is. It's a crystalline structure that can be made up of different materials. You can mix and match atoms and molecules depending on your needs. The name comes from the shape (similar to the mineral perovskite), not the chemical composition. They've shown potential for high performance in the solar power industry, but there have been multiple hurdles, including failed efforts to improve efficiency.  That's where this development comes in.

The passivation process is meant to reduce defects in the semiconductor material and improve efficiency, and Professor Kim's team achieved this by introducing hexagonal polytype perovskite into the process.

​​"A typical approach so far has been to introduce an external chemical reagent to deal with the defect problem," Kim said. "However, bringing in external reagents could directly impact the crystalline quality of the perovskite during crystal growth, so our work does not rely on such stabilizers. Instead we employ a chemically identical polytype of perovskite, 6H polytype containing a corner-sharing component that effectively suppresses the formation of defects in perovskite."