Test Kitchens for Solar Cells

In 2021, there is worldwide concern over semiconductor shortages. So imagine if a technology existed to roll sheets of semiconductor materials off a printing press like the daily edition of the Wall Street Journal. Joshua Choi, an associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, believes such a scenario is possible. He is working with a group of researchers led by Cornell University, his Ph.D. alma mater, under a $3 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to use machine learning to accelerate the development of low-cost, easy-to-manufacture semiconductor materials for solar energy. Choi's lab will play a pivotal role in manufacturing and performance-testing photovoltaic cells fabricated with a class of semiconductor materials called hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites. Perovskites are crystal structures that can efficiently convert light into electricity, making the material an attractive semiconductor for solar cells — that, and the ability of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites to grow in a solution. “We can make the entire device from a simple ink processed at a low temperature,” Choi said. “You pretty much coat it on a substrate and turn it into a photovoltaic cell.”