Stabilizing the glassy state of materials using rare instrumentation is unlocking a new line of research for perovskites, with potential solar cell technology impacts. Researchers at Duke are exploring possibilities opened by a new instrument called a Flash Differential Scanning Calorimeter (Flash-DSC), which allows them to cool materials at an unprecedented rate of up to three million degrees Celsius per minute. Those speeds are necessary to stop certain materials from forming crystals. The Flash-DSC tool allows the researchers to rapidly cool any melted material in a super-fast fashion. The cooling potentially allows the team to stabilize those glassy phases that were impossible in the conventional laboratory setting, with potential implications for lower thermal or electrical conductivity, improved catalytic activity, reduced sensitivity to imperfections and increased longevity, among others. READ MORE.
Photo of solar panels in detail by Mark Stebnicki.