A University of Warwick team is undertaking a five-year study which will delve into the atomic-level structure of the new material known as perovskite.
Perovskite solar panels could be easily deposited onto most surfaces, including flexible and textured ones. The materials are also lightweight, cheap to produce, and as efficient as today's leading photovoltaic materials, which are mainly silicon.
However, it currently faces issues with stability and a short lifespan which decreases further in high humidity, strong sunlight and at elevated temperatures.
While the properties of perovskite solar cells change in a range of atmospheric conditions, they remain remarkably stable outside the Earth’s atmosphere. This points to the potential for harvesting energy in space. The European Space Agency has revealed it would be investigating whether satellites could beam electricity back to Earth earlier this year.
Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR, an analytical...