PEDOT:PSS

Japanese researchers have fabricated a heterojunction (HJT) solar cell with silicon and a polymer material known as PEDOT:PSS under room temperature conditions. It has an efficiency of 10.1%, an open-circuit voltage of 0.57 V, a short-circuit current density of 33.3 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 0.53.

Scientists at Saudia Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology demonstrated an organic PV cell that can simply be printed onto a piece of paper. The cell set a new efficiency record for a fully inkjet-printed device, and its designers envisage applications in integrated medical sensors.

A team of researchers led by Nanchang University in China trialed a polymer based hole transport layer to flexible perovskite solar cells, using a glue to attach it to the active perovskite. The team was able to assemble the 19.87%-efficient cells into a small flexible module suitable for wearable solar applications, and says its design was inspired by the structure and movements of human vertebrae.

Researchers from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology claim to have developed a highly performant organic PV cell using tungsten disulfide flakes a few atoms thick. The stability of the device, however, is still to be evaluated.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a transparent coating they successfully incorporated into a perovskite solar cell, increasing efficiency and stability. The group says with further improvements the material could be used as a simpler, less expensive alternative to widely used indium tin oxide as a transparent conductive material for a range of applications.

The race to the theoretical maximum conversion efficiency continues and with new lab results in, it appears a big leap forward may have been achieved at Leibniz University Hannover.