Creating and storing energy can be degrading — at least to the sensitive technology needed for the work.
As a result, scientists at Australia's Monash University are developing a coveted "self-healing" capability for a sun-catching material that can form solar cells.
The specialized perovskite (explained here by the U.S. Department of Energy) uses a unique "healing agent" with chemical bonds that can "break and recover under heat and moisture," the typical factors that degrade the crystalline mineral. The layers of chemicals, which are slowly released, react or attach to defects that develop as the cells operate, minimizing them, according to nonprofit news site Anthropocene.
"This breakthrough could pave the way for more reliable and efficient perovskite solar cells contributing to the global transition towards sustainable energy solutions," lead author Udo Bach — who is a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Monash — said in a press release, per Anthropocene.
Perovskite has huge potential as a solar cell material, providing a greater than 25% efficiency rate. That's the amount of sunlight that can be converted to electricity, per the DOE.
What's more, the material can outperform the silicon common in most panels. Most panels have efficiency rates of less than 23%, according to MarketWatch. Perovskites are also abundant and "could be" more easily recycled, as Anthropocene notes.
The Monash team is touting a 25.1% rate and "remarkable stability" after 1,000 hours of "accelerated aging tests" at 185 degrees Fahrenheit.
"This work addresses critical issues related to defect passivation in perovskites that have hindered widespread adoption of this promising technology," Bach said in a university lab summary.
Work on so-called self-healing technology is ongoing in other labs, too. A battery cathode being developed at the University of California San Diego can repair itself.
It's part of the way to make renewable energy more accessible and cost-friendly. If the Monash invention can help perovskites become a standard solar-cell material, it could help to lower the price of the tech, as well as reduce some of the waste concerns about end-of-life panels.
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In fact, experts around the world are researching how to best harvest the valuable metals and electronic waste that are part of the setups as multimillion-panel farms go online. Some experts even think the solar recycling business could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years, Yahoo Finance reports.
The good news is that solar power is readily available now and can be accessed with zero equipment installed at your home. Community solar programs let you tap into sunpower from nearby sun-catching farms. With some simple online research from a service like EnergySage, you can save up to $150 a year on your electricity bill.
The big win is reducing planet-warming fumes, linked in recent studies to increased dementia risks, per the Alzheimer's Association, among other health problems.
At Monash, the team is continuing to prepare its self-healing perovskites for real-world conditions, with the goal of putting them on panels soon.
"Our slow-release strategy represents a significant advancement in the field of perovskite photovoltaics," Bach said in the lab summary.
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