The best hope for cheap, super-efficient solar power is a remarkable family of crystalline materials called hybrid perovskites.

Based on five years of research and development, the hybrid perovskite solar cells are now able to attain conversion efficiencies that previously took decades to achieve with top-performing conventional materials used to generate electricity from sunlight.

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Perovskites, a class of crystalline materials, are causing quite a stir in the clean energy world. Scientists and engineers have previously been unable to understand what exactly happens at its molecular level.

"People have made good films over relatively small areas -- a fraction of a centimeter or so square. But they've had to go to temperatures from 100 to 150 degrees Celsius, and that heating process causes a number of problems," said Nitin Padture, professor of engineering and director of the Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation.

Now, researchers at the University of Utah in collaboration with the University of Texas at Dallas have uncovered some of the secrets behind the amazing material's performance. The findings help fill a deep void in hybrid perovskite solar cell research.

Among the practical results of the new study is proof of a way to rapidly test the performance of different prototypes of hybrid perovskite materials using magnetic fields, according to lead author Charlie Zhang, a post-doctoral research fellow, and senior author Z. Valy Vardeny, a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Utah.

"Using the other methods, when the thickness gets below 100 nm, you can hardly make full coverage of film. You can make a film, but you get lots of pinholes. In our process, you can form the film evenly down to 20 nm because the crystallization at room temperature is much more balanced and occurs immediately over the whole film upon bathing," said Yuanyuan Zhou, a graduate student in Padture's lab.

The researchers believe harnessing solar energy through photovoltaic cells has become easier with the development of hybrid perovskite.

The study was published in the journal, Nature Physics.

TagsScientists Unfold New Method of Creating Perovskite Films for Solar Cells, Solar cells, Perovskite, Perovskite films, crystalline, perovskite solar cell, solar energy, Magnetic Fields