| May 01, 2026 |
A team of chemical engineers have developed a new fabrication method that eliminates the need for toxic lead and other hazardous solvents in perovskite indoor solar panels.
|
|
(Nanowerk News) Safer and more environmentally friendly indoor solar panels could soon help power electronics in homes and offices, thanks to University of Queensland researchers (ACS Energy Letters, “Intermediate-Phase Engineering of Thermally-Evaporated Lead-Free Halide Perovskites for Indoor Photovoltaics”).
|
|
A team of chemical engineers led by UQ’s Dr Miaoqiang Lyu and Professor Lianzhou Wang have developed a new fabrication method that eliminates the need for toxic lead and other hazardous solvents in perovskite indoor solar panels.
|
 |
| Halide perovskites are an emerging technology that could replace silicon. (Image: The University of Queensland)
|
|
“Indoor solar cells themselves are not new, but the power conversion efficiency of the commercial silicon-based technology is only around 10 per cent,” Dr Lyu said.
|
|
“Halide perovskites are an emerging technology that could replace silicon, offering much higher efficiencies and commercial potential.
|
|
“However, most still rely on lead-based hazardous materials.
|
|
“The technology we developed eliminates those materials while still delivering high efficiency.”
|
|
UQ PhD student Zitong Wang, who is under the supervision of Dr Lyu and Professor Wang, developed a safe and scalable vapour-based manufacturing process for fabricating high-quality lead-free perovskite material with fewer performance-limiting defects.
|
|
Indoor perovskite solar cells operate under low-intensity artificial light, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and fluorescent lamps.
|
|
Using the new method, the panels achieved an efficiency of 16.36 per cent — the highest reported for this type of lead-free perovskite indoor solar cell made using an industry-compatible evaporation method.
|
|
“This material has very attractive properties that can absorb indoor light and convert very weak indoor light efficiently into electricity,” Dr Lyu said.
|
|
“By removing those solvents entirely, the process is much better suited to scalable manufacturing.”
|
|
Lead-free perovskite indoor solar cells are also increasingly viewed as an alternative to coin-cell and button batteries for low-power electronics like environmental sensors, wearables, medical and health monitoring devices, and small consumer electronics.
|
|
Supermarkets trialling battery-powered electronic shelf labels, which replace thousands of paper price tickets and reduce manual labour, are among the potential early applications of the technology.
|
|
“With suitable voltage management, these devices can replace coin‑cell batteries, reducing the number of small batteries that end up as waste or in children’s toys,” Dr Lyu said.
|
|
Panels fabricated using the UQ process are thin, scalable and can be made on flexible plastic and in different shapes, making them easy to integrate into a wide range of products.
|
|
The next step is sealing the panels before further testing.
|
|
“I think the key here is encapsulation, to protect the material from oxygen and moisture,” Dr Lyu said.
|
|
“People will probably see perovskite indoor panels and integrated consumer electronics in the market in the next few years.”
|
