Epitaxial Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskites for Inexpensive and Efficient Solar Harvesting

Our planet’s ever-increasing energy consumption drives a search for inexpensive and efficient renewable energy sources, and the sun could be the answer. Emerging inorganic-organic solar cell technology utilizing methylammonium metal halides with the perovskite structure experienced five-fold increase in power conversion efficiency since its introduction, from 3.8 % in 2009 to 20.1 % in 2014. These solar cells show potential to greatly cut costs of solar energy harvesting: however epitaxial films remain unexplored. I will present a novel method to electrochemically synthesize epitaxial CH3NH3PbI3 films with the perovskite structure. Epitaxial PbO2 is converted to epitaxial CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite of tunable morphology and crystal orientation by simple dip conversion. Solar cells constructed with epitaxial CH3NH3PbI3 should exhibit increased efficiencies because the density of bulk and interface defects is minimized. This method could be integrated into cells to provide a clean and more cost-effective alternative to traditional silicon single crystal technology