From daily news and career tips to monthly insights on AI, sustainability, software, and more—pick what matters and get it in your inbox.
Access expert insights, exclusive content, and a deeper dive into engineering and innovation.
Engineering-inspired textiles, mugs, hats, and thoughtful gifts
We connect top engineering talent with the world's most innovative companies.
We empower professionals with advanced engineering and tech education to grow careers.
We recognize outstanding achievements in engineering, innovation, and technology.
All Rights Reserved, IE Media, Inc.
Follow Us On
Access expert insights, exclusive content, and a deeper dive into engineering and innovation.
Engineering-inspired textiles, mugs, hats, and thoughtful gifts
We connect top engineering talent with the world's most innovative companies
We empower professionals with advanced engineering and tech education to grow careers.
We recognize outstanding achievements in engineering, innovation, and technology.
All Rights Reserved, IE Media, Inc.
Perovskite solar cells fail because oxygen inside them slowly tears them apart. A taurine layer can stop this damage.
Perovskite solar cells have long been the most exciting “almost there” technology in clean energy. In laboratories, they already rival the best silicon solar cells, converting more than 26 percent of sunlight into electricity.
They are thin, lightweight, and far cheaper to make than silicon because they can be printed from liquid solutions at low temperatures.
However, one flaw has kept them out of the real world. They fall apart too quickly as oxygen trapped inside the cells slowly destroys the perovskite crystal, making long-term operation impossible.
Now, a new study proposes an innovative solution to this problem inspired by marine biology. By inserting a microscopic layer of taurine (a natural antioxidant found in octopus and squid), they show how perovskite solar cells can defend themselves against oxygen.
The biggest hidden problem in perovskite solar cells is oxygen, one of their most destructive enemies. When sunlight hits the perovskite layer, it creates energetic electrons. These electrons can react with oxygen molecules to form superoxide radicals—highly reactive chemical species that rip apart the organic molecules holding the crystal together.
This damage often begins at a buried interface inside the cell, where the perovskite touches a tin-dioxide layer that helps pull electrons out as useful current. Encapsulation—sealing the device from air—helps, but it doesn’t provide complete protection.
This is because many perovskite cells are made in normal air, which traps oxygen inside the device from the start. Even worse, tin dioxide itself contains oxygen-related defects on its surface. So under light and heat, these oxygen species migrate into the perovskite and trigger degradation from within. No external seal can block that.
To tackle this problem, researchers from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology placed an ultrathin layer of taurine right at this vulnerable interface.
Taurine is a sulfur-containing amino acid best known for protecting living tissues from oxidative damage. The researchers explore whether it could play a similar defensive role inside a solar cell. Their experiments and computer simulations revealed a clever two-step protection cycle.
First, taurine captures superoxide radicals as soon as they form on the tin-dioxide surface. Taurine carries both positive and negative charges at different parts of the molecule—a structure called a zwitterion. This allows it to electrostatically trap the superoxide. A hydrogen atom from taurine then converts the superoxide into hydrogen peroxide, which is far less destructive.
The second step tackles a downstream problem. Hydrogen peroxide can react with iodine produced when perovskite begins to break down. This iodine normally forms triiodide, a compound that accelerates further damage in a runaway loop.
Taurine interrupts this cycle by converting iodine back into harmless iodide ions. Moreover, the chemical reactions regenerate taurine back to its original state, allowing it to keep neutralizing radicals again and again instead of being used up.
Microscopic analysis confirmed the effect. Untreated devices developed visible voids at the buried interface after light exposure. Taurine-treated samples showed clean, intact layers. Chemical analysis found serious oxygen-related damage in untreated films, while treated ones remained untouched.
Under harsh ultraviolet light and ozone, taurine-protected films retained about seven times more of their original perovskite structure after 90 minutes. Taurine also improved performance in quieter ways. It bonded to both materials it sat between, reducing tiny defects that trap electrical charges.
This lowered the defect-related voltage threshold from 0.85 to 0.50 volts, nearly doubled electron mobility in the tin-dioxide layer, and almost doubled the lifetime of charge carriers. The best device reached a power-conversion efficiency of 24.8 percent, with an open-circuit voltage of 1.18 volts and a high fill factor of 83.7 percent.
“The taurine-buried interface enables an improved PCE with increased open-circuit voltage (VOC) and fill factor (FF), while markedly enhancing the light-soaking and operational stability of PSCs,” the study authors note.
The study shows that durability cannot be solved by encapsulation alone. Oxygen-driven reactions at buried interfaces must be controlled directly, and this work demonstrates a practical way to do so.
That control delivers clear gains. Taurine-treated devices retained 80 percent of their initial efficiency after 130 hours of operation in air—over five times longer than untreated cells—and maintained 97 percent efficiency after 450 hours at 65 °C, without sacrificing performance.
The challenge now is scale and time. Perovskite modules must operate for years, not months, and manufacturing at a large scale will introduce new stresses. The authors argue that the broader strategy—self-regenerating, antioxidant-inspired interlayers—could be adapted to other materials and interfaces.
If extended successfully, this approach could help turn perovskites from high-efficiency lab devices into durable solar technologies suited for real-world deployment.
The study is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.
Rupendra Brahambhatt is an experienced writer, researcher, journalist, and filmmaker. With a B.Sc (Hons.) in Science and PGJMC in Mass Communications, he has been actively working with some of the most innovative brands, news agencies, digital magazines, documentary filmmakers, and nonprofits from different parts of the globe. As an author, he works with a vision to bring forward the right information and encourage a constructive mindset among the masses.
Premium
Follow
