A new invention for a new age
NTU scientists make a revolutionary breakthrough in solar technology In this century, when energy is the biggest crisis and the environment is at the brink of tipping over, Professor Sum Tze Chien from the Department of Physics and Applied Physics, SPMS and Dr. Nripan Mathews from the Department of Material Sciences, MAE, along with their team of talented researchers, have come forward with a clean-and-green solution involving solar energy. Solar energy remains one of the most promising areas for an eco-friendly source of energy. However, it also incurs a lot of costs for the manufacturing of solar cells and requires a lot of space for solar panels. This innovation born in NTU is set to be the next generation solar cell, made from an organic and inorganic hybrid of perovskite, a mineral consisting of calcium titanate. Perovskite is about five times cheaper than thin-film solar cells due to a much simpler and economical manufacturing process. It isn"t just friendly to the budget but also proves to be a highly efficient solar cell material as it can convert up to 15 per cent of sunlight to electricity, same as the efficiency of current solar cells. In a paper published on 18th October in Science, the world"s most prestigious academic journal, the use of perovskite and the intricacies of the phenomenon were elucidated in great detail. The team of eight researchers, led by Professor Sum and Dr. Mathews, alongside Professor Michael Grätzel from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a pioneer in perovskite solar cell efficiency and the co-author of the paper, have worked closely over the past six months to complete this fundamental research project. This paper proved to be a renaissance for the working of these solar cells and this knowledge is now being applied by the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) to develop a commercial prototype of the cell in collaboration with Dyesol Ltd., an Australian firm for clean technology. Professor Sum said that the discovery of why perovskite worked so well as a solar cell material was made possible only through the use of cutting-edge equipment and in close collaboration with NTU"s engineers. "In our work, we utilise ultrafast lasers to study the perovskite materials. We tracked how fast these materials react to light in quadrillionths of a second (roughly 100 billion times faster than a camera flash). We discovered that in these perovskite materials, the electrons generated in the material by sunlight can travel quite far. This will allow us to make thicker solar cells which absorb more light and in turn generate more electricity. This unique characteristic of perovskite is quite remarkable since it is made from a simple solution method that normally produces low quality materials," said the photophysics scientist. Dr Mathews from ERI@N said that their discovery is a great example of how investing in fundamental research and interdisciplinary efforts can lead to advances in knowledge and breakthroughs in the applied sciences. "Now that we know exactly how perovskite materials behave and work, we will be able to tweak the performance of the new solar cells and improve its efficiency, hopefully reaching or even exceeding the performance of today"s thin-film solar cells. The excellent properties of these materials, allow us to make light weight, flexible solar cells on plastic using cheap processes without sacrificing the good sunlight conversion efficiency," said Dr Mathews, the R&D Director of the Singapore-Berkeley Research Initiative for Sustainable Energy NRF CREATE programme. The Executive Director of ERI@N, Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, said that they are now looking into building prototype solar cell modules based on this newly understood and exciting class of materials. "Perovskite-based solar cells have the potential to reach 20 per cent solar cell efficiencies and another great benefit of these materials is their amenability to yield different translucent colours, such as red, yellow or brown. Having such colourful solar glass will create new opportunities for architectural design," added the connoisseur of microelectronics.
Additional Textbox: The past few months at NTU have been nothing short of happening. Be it a plethora of the Arts or a vast spectrum of the Sciences, NTU has always brought its A-game forward. Here are a few glimpses of what our University has achieved recently: NTU took a leap forward in life sciences research with the launch of a new state-of-the-art electron microscopy lab. Named the NTU Cryo-Electron Microscopy Laboratory, it is the first university research facility in the world equipped with the Arctica, a new electron microscope for high-resolution cryo-imaging. The lab would be led by world renowned scientist Professor Daniela Rhodes. it is also the world"s first university research facility to be equipped with an advanced cryo transmission electron microscope fitted with the latest detector/camera ten times more sensitive than a regular electron microscopy camera. NTU was ranked number 1 globally for Industry income and innovation in Times Higher University rankings HEY! NTU clinched the Golden World Award in the Publications category. NTU jumped in world university rankings for the third straight year.It is now placed No. 41 in the world and is the fastest-rising Asian university in the Top 50. NTU and SUTD launched a joint lab to drive research in 3D design and printing. Named the VP Lab, the new multi-disciplinary research lab will have dual facilities for visualisation and prototyping and will be located at NTU Yunnan campus and SUTD"s Dover campus.
Quelle: http://su.ntu.edu.sg/tribune/main/?p=845
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