Painstakingly curated perovskite database of over 40,000 devices set to speed up solar research

Ninety-four researchers have undertaken a colossal challenge: manually reviewing over 16,000 papers to extract information on perovskite solar cells. Now, they have launched an open-access database with all this information. This massive collection of data could accelerate the discovery of photoactive materials and contribute to a better understanding of how these solar cells work .

Perovskite-based solar cells have become a hot research area. In just a decade, their efficiency at transforming sunlight into electricity has grown from a modest 5% to more than 25%. The photoactive ingredient in these devices – the perovskite – is often sandwiched between other layers to collect and transport electric charge, which influences performance, as do the different fabrication methods.