Russia hits all the solar panels in the world – The problem is what’s under this mountain

The discovery of perovskite crystals in the Ural Mountains in Russia in the 19^th century was followed by the discovery of metal halide perovskites about 50 years later. Over a century passed before the remarkable electronic and light emitting characteristics of perovskite materials were realized. More recently perovskites have spurred an flurry of research in the field of solar cell research.

The Russian Ural mountains and the history of perovskite

Besides solar cell research, the versatility of perovskites enables their use in a myriad of applications such as superconductors and catalytic converters. In the future there will be an increased role for perovskites in computing.

The history of perovskite

• Natural perovskite crystals were discovered in 1839.
• The first man-made perovskite structure was synthesized in 1892.
• The 1990’s saw the discovery of the unique electronic properties of perovskite
• In 2009, perovskite was first used in dye-sensitized solar cells
• In 2012 the first all solid state perovskite was created
• In 2017, the first successful perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells
• In 2020 perovskite solar cells achieved efficiencies of over 20%

The mysterious history of Perovskite

Perovskite has a mysterious history. Up until that point in the discussion unknown naturally occurring mineral of calcium titanate was found in the Russian Ural Mountains. What remains uncertain is who exactly first found the crystal. What is known is that after the discovery was made, the mysterious mineral was sent to Chief Mines Inspector August Alexander Kämmerer (1789 – 1858), a Russian mineralogist, in 1839, who then passed it to Gastavus Rose at the University of Berlin for physicochemical analysis. Gustavus “Gustav” Rose (1798 – 1873) was born in Berlin and studied at the University of Berlin where he later became Associate Professor of Mineralogy in 1826.

In 1829 Rose joined a scientific expedition through Imperial Russia, taking in the Altai and Ural Mountains – as well as the Caspian Sea – with the German naturalists Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859) and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795 – 1876). Both von Humboldt and Ehrenberg were distinguished men of science and now renowned in the history of science. Rose, himself, identified many minerals that were novel to science and made important contributions to the fields of crystallography and petrology (a branch of geology).

During the nine-month expedition, Rose was tasked with mineralogical investigation and henceforth he developed an excellent reputation in the field. This explains why Rose was given the crystal upon its original discovery. Rose published a paper giving the results of the expedition in Poggendorffs Annalen der Physik und Chemie volume XXXXVIII in 1839. It was upon Kämmerer’s suggestion that the rock be named ‘Perovskite’ after the Russian politician Count Lev Aleksevich Perovskite (1792 – 1856). Perovskite was not himself a scientist, but he was a collector and fine connoisseur of minerals.

Perovskite solar cells

Calcium titanate (Perovskite) is a colourless mineral with a naturally crystalline structure (designated a type of orthorhombic crystal in the scientific field of crystallography). Half a century after its discovery, in 1892, Horace L. Wells at the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, discovered the first synthetic halide (a binary compound made up of halogen and one other element of any kind) perovskite based on caesium and lead.

Nowadays the structure we call perovskite can be readily made using chemical and industrial processes. Thus, a diversity of minerals sharing the crystal lattice (similar to the original) also bear the perovskite name (namely inorganic compounds with the structure ABX₃). Meanwhile, the naturally occurring crystalline form is actually quite rare.

In recent years, interest in perovskite materials has grown rapidly, particularly in regard to perovskite solar cells. In terms of solar cell materials, silicon is the standard and has dominated the market since the early 1970s. Any competing PV material has to compete. In other words, any competing material must be efficient in converting solar energy to electrical energy and be robust.