Society’s growing digital infrastructure and the power-hungry data centers required to support it all have dramatically increased global electricity demand, making efficient renewable energy production more critical than ever. At a time when tech companies and governments are seeking sustainable energy solutions, researchers at Michigan Technological University have paved a new path toward efficient, scalable solar energy.
The research, published recently in ACS Applied Energy Materials, represents a return to fundamentals in solar cell design focusing on material quality rather than structural complexity. Michigan Tech experts in physics and materials science and engineering conducted the study, which was led by Yoke Khin Yap, professor of physics.
Commercial solar cells rely on expensive single-crystal silicon, which is difficult to scale for large-area devices. For the past two decades, researchers have primarily concentrated on developing nanostructured electron transport layers (ETLs) to increase contact surface area and enhance electron flow. This approach, while innovative, has unintentionally resulted in more interface defects, ultimately diminishing rather than improving solar cell performance. Quantum dot (QD) based solar cells present a promising alternative due to their cost-effectiveness and manufacturing scalability. However, these emerging technologies have faced challenges with efficiency losses at the material level and defects within transport layers.
Read this article in full here.
.jpg)
