A team of scientists have demonstrated that perovskite solar cells can function 10 meters below the surface of the South China Sea.
Study author Wen-Hua Zhang, from Yunnan University and Southwest United Graduate School in Kunming, said there are only few studies reported on underwater solar cells, with all focused on water depths of two meters or less.
“This work presents the first functional validation of submerged solar cells practically operating at a water depth of up to about 10 meters, greatly broadening their application scope,” Zhang said.
The scientists deployed lead halide perovskite solar cells with a wide-bandgap of approximately 1.96 eV. The research paper explains that in order to achieve efficient and durable submerged perovskites, the team introduced polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride for energy-level modulation.
“This enables the perovskites to convert from p- to n-type, facilitating electron extraction, suppressing halide ion migration, reducing defect density, and improving lattice stability,” the paper adds.
To test their perovskites, the research team developed a customized laboratory system with tailored optical filters that simulated underwater illumination at various depths. Under testing, their submerged perovskite delivered a power conversion efficiency of 34.71% and showed almost no degradation after 1,160 hours under simulated conditions at a depth of 10 meters.
The team then integrated perovskite solar cells with underwater robots, deploying them at a depth of 10 meters off the Weizhou Islands in the South China Sea to test their real-world application.
The large-area modules were found capable of generating 324 mWh of electricity upon underwater illumination for 2 hours at a depth of 10 meters, sufficient to charge lithium-ion batteries and light up LEDs.
Additional accelerated testing outlined in the research paper predicts the cells could have a lifetime almost 5.5 years when submerged at 25°C at a depth of 10 m.
“What surprised us most was [how] much electrical energy our large-area modules generated under real-world conditions at 10-meter water depth for only two hours,” says Zhang.
“We also achieved scaling from small‑area laboratory cells to large‑size modules,” he added. “The combination of the laboratory investigations and the in-field experiments provides strong evidence for the operation of underwater photovoltaics.”
The research paper says the findings “pave the way for the practical deployment of perovskite photovoltaics in underwater environments” to power submerged sensors, cameras, and communication systems far from land.
“This offers a promising route toward self-sustained marine energy systems and autonomous underwater devices,” the paper concludes.
The research work is presented in the study “Submerged solar harvesting with wide-band-gap perovskites for autonomous underwater energy systems,” available in the research paper Joule.
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