Discover a new way to manufacture the new generation

A team of researchers at Penn State University has developed a new process for making perovskite deviceswhich is more efficient from an economic point of view and in terms of the time required for the procedure.

Thanks to it, in the future it may also be possible to discover new materials in a relatively faster way.

Manufacturing the next generation of photovoltaic solar cells

The secret lies in the sintering of the plasma spark. (a sintering It is a process in which powders with or without crystalline preparation, once pressed, are subjected to high temperatures, just below their melting temperature).

This technology is called EM-FAST, or in current language, plasma spark sintering, this technology consists in applying electric current and pressing powders, with the aim of obtaining new materials.

Regardless of the raw material used, the yield is always 100%, which is in contrast to the much poorer results obtained with solution-based processing, where they ranged from 20 to 30%.

With this technique, it was possible to produce perovskite materials at a speed of 0.2 inches per minute, which contributes to the rapid creation of large devices, which are still able to maintain high performance in laboratory tests conducted by the research team.

In the words of Luyao Zheng, lead author from this studyAnd “This method we have developed allows us to easily generate large pool samples in minutes, rather than spending days or weeks with traditional methods.”

EM-FAST technology in detail

The English acronym EM-FAST stands for Electric and Mechanical Field Assisted Sintering Technology, and as mentioned earlier, this was the technology used to create the respective perovskite devices, which can then be used in the fabrication of photovoltaic solar cells.

Sintering is widely used, for example, to compress and transform powdery materials in order to obtain solid blocks, through the use of heat and pressure.

The problem is that even with materials well suited to the procedure in question, it is ineffective when the intention is to create large pieces of perovskite, not to mention that the solvents used are often toxic.

“Our technology combines the best of both worlds: we get properties similar to single crystals and don’t have to worry about size limitations or any contamination or production of toxic substances,” says Bed Budell, a research professor at Penn State and co-author of this study.

Because it uses dry materials, EM-FAST technology creates the opportunity to include new materials, customized according to the properties that are intended to be obtained from the end result.

In this way, we have an open door for the development of new materials, including thermoelectrics and solar energy.

In addition, this process also allows powders to be arranged in different layers, which may lead to the possibility of creating bespoke devices in the future.