Russia has developed a new type of semi-transparent solar panel: it can not only generate electricity but also transmit visible light

According to media reports, the Russian National Research University of Technology has developed a new method for applying transparent indium tin oxide electrodes to perovskite solar cells, which can further improve the efficiency of solar cells and make them translucent.

Traditionally, the industry generally uses magnetron sputtering technology to apply ITO as a transparent electrode material to perovskite solar cells. However, this method faces major challenges: the ITO layer deposited by magnetron sputtering often has many defects and is difficult to achieve ideal performance requirements; more importantly, the process may also damage the fragile perovskite layer and other battery components, seriously restricting the improvement of the overall efficiency of the battery.

To solve this problem, the Russian research team took a unique approach and adopted advanced ion beam sputtering technology. This revolutionary method avoids the need for a high temperature environment and effectively protects the integrity of the structure of each layer of the battery, thereby ensuring that the ITO layer can be deposited on the perovskite solar cell in the best state, showing excellent performance.

The experimental results show that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of semi-transparent solar cells prepared by ion beam sputtering technology has achieved a qualitative leap, from 3.12% of magnetron sputtering ITO samples to 12.65%. This significant improvement not only proves the feasibility and superiority of the new technology route, but also opens up broad space for the future development of perovskite solar cells.

This research result is not only limited to the improvement of efficiency, but also gives solar cells a new application dimension. It makes it possible to manufacture high-performance tandem solar cells. Such cells broaden the absorption range of the radiation spectrum by stacking a variety of photosensitive materials, greatly improving the utilization efficiency of sunlight. At the same time, semi-transparent solar cells, with their unique light-transmitting properties, bring unprecedented creative space to architectural design, allowing solar cells to be seamlessly integrated into windows, exterior walls and other parts of buildings, achieving a perfect fusion of energy utilization and aesthetic design.