About Carbon-based perovskite solar cells (CPSCs):

• It is the first indigenous perovskite-powered niche product developed in India and can pave the way for futuristic stable perovskite solar cells.
• Issues with Perovskite photovoltaic cells
  • They face the problem of degradation during operation when they come in contact with heat, moisture, light, and other environmental factors.
  • This long-duration stability is a major hindrance in the large-scale commercialisation of the product.
• While Carbon-based perovskite solar cells (CPSCs) have been successful in minimizing device stability issues and fabrication costs, the sensitivity of perovskite materials toward humidity and thermal stress is a major obstacle for practical implementation.
• Scientists have engineered MaPbI3 (MAPI-Methylammonium-lead-iodide) to attain thermal stability by incorporating Guanidinium iodide (GuI) and moisture stability by surface passivation using 5- amino valeric acid iodide (5-AVAI).
• Significance:
  • The indigenously developed perovskite solar cells can help resolve stability concerns in PSCs bring down high fabrication costs and could help speed up of commercialization in PSC-based niche products.

What is Perovskite?

• It is a material that has the same crystal structure as the mineral calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3), the first-discovered perovskite crystal.
• The mineral was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia by Gustav Rose in 1839 and is named after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski.
• Generally, perovskite compounds have a chemical formula ABX3, where ‘A’ and ‘B’ represent cations, and X is an anion that bonds to both.
• A large number of different elements can be combined together to form perovskite.
• Due to its compositional flexibility, scientists can design perovskite crystals to have a wide variety of physical, optical, and electrical characteristics from insulating, semiconducting, metallic, and superconducting characteristics.