Tin set to offer toxic-free future for solar cells

摘要

Researchers in the UK and the US have shown that a new type of low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell could be made using tin rather than the lead that has so far been used in development devices. Perovskite solar cells take their name from the crystalline structure adopted by many compounds; previous solar cells have used lead halide perovskites, but a team at Oxford University has demonstrated that lead can be replaced with tin. The perovskite cells promise to be cheap and easy to mass produce and have already achieved a 17% efficiency at turning sunlight into electricity after two years of research. In this new research the Oxford team looked into what could replace lead. Although the amount of lead in each cell is tiny, its presence could still be a barrier to commercialisation, with firms looking at the entire lifecycle of solar cells and their disposal.