A team of engineers is combining forces to create a safe, nontoxic and efficient material for solar cells.
In the past decade, researchers have used a new material made of lead-halide perovskites as the semiconducting absorber layer in solar cells. While these perovskites have dramatically increased solar cells’ efficiency for converting solar energy to electricity, they not only contain toxic lead, but also are unstable in light, moisture and heat and breaks down in a matter of days, leaking lead into groundwater.