The Disruptive Perovskites

Halide perovskite solar cells are presently the forerunner of solution-processed photovoltaic technologies with certified efficiencies exceeding 23%. In the lecture held on 14 May 2019, Prof Sum reviewed the meteoric rise of perovskite solar cells in a matter of 10 years to efficiencies that took the ubiquitous Si solar cells more than 5 decades to achieve. He distilled the novel photophysics of the workhorse methyl-ammonium lead tri-iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) perovskite system and highlighted his team latest efforts in harnessing its slow hot-carrier cooling properties. Opportunities and challenges in developing hot-carrier extraction and multi-exciton generation for next-generation perovskite photovoltaics were also discussed.