Aqueous synthesis of perovskite precursors for highly efficient perovskite solar cells. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38301009/)

These scientists wanted to make solar cells that are really good at converting sunlight into electricity. They found that impurities in the materials they were using were making the solar cells less efficient. So, they came up with a way to make the materials they needed for the solar cells really pure.

They used a special method to make tiny crystals called perovskite crystals. These crystals are important because they can absorb sunlight and turn it into electricity. The scientists used water to make these perovskite crystals, which is pretty cool!

They found a way to make the perovskite crystals really pure, almost 100% pure! This means that there are almost no impurities in the crystals that could make the solar cells work less well. They made a lot of these pure crystals, enough to make a lot of solar cells.

When they tested the solar cells made with these pure crystals, they found that they were really good at converting sunlight into electricity. In fact, they were able to convert 25.6% of the sunlight into electricity, which is a lot! They also tested the solar cells for a long time and found that they still worked well even after being exposed to sunlight for a thousand hours.

So, these scientists figured out a way to make solar cells that are really efficient at turning sunlight into electricity by making the materials they used really pure. This is important because it can help us use solar energy more effectively and reduce our reliance on other sources of power.

Zhu P., Wang D., Zhang Y., Liang Z., Li J., Zeng J., Zhang J., Xu Y., Wu S., Liu Z., Zhou X., Hu B., He F., Zhang L., Pan X., Wang X., Park NG., Xu B. Aqueous synthesis of perovskite precursors for highly efficient perovskite solar cells. Science. 2024 Feb 2;383(6682):524-531. doi: 10.1126/science.adj7081. Epub 2024 Feb 1.