New study identifies the promise and challenges facing large-scale deployment of solar photovoltaics.
Illustration shows the MIT team's proposed scheme for comparing different photovoltaic materials, based on the complexity of their basic molecular structure. The complexity increases from the simplest material, pure silicon (single atom, lower left), to the most complex material currently being studied for potential solar cells, quantum dots (molecular structure at top right). Materials shown in between include gallium aresenide, perovskite and dye-sensitized solar cells. Image courtesy of the researchers