TIFR researchers Hyderabad receive Rs 6.8 crore DST grant for research on solar cells

TIFR Hyderabad has been selected for ‘Challenge Awards 2021 on Solar Energy’, constituted by DST, Government of India (GOI).

Hyderabad: A multi-institute research team led by Pabitra K. Nayak from Hyderabad-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad, has been selected for ‘Challenge Awards 2021 on Solar Energy’, constituted by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India (GOI).

The Challenge Awards 2021 on Solar Energy, which comes with a research grant of Rs. 6.8 crore, invited research proposals on developing solar energy based devices and systems that could address technological challenges of the future.

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The co-investigators in the projects include P. K. Madhu from TIFR Hyderabad, Shaibal K. Sarkar from IIT Bombay, Ajay Perumal from IISER Berhampur, and Sudip Chakraborty from HRI Prayagraj.

The group aims to develop organic and metal halide perovskites-based semiconducting materials enabling highly efficient and stable solar cells. Pabitra K. Nayak will develop new types of organic and perovskite materials to be used in the solar cell while P. K. Madhu, whose expertise lies in high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, will investigate how the structure of the organic and perovskite materials influences the function of solar cells.

Shaibal K. Sarkar and Ajay Perumal will be fabricating the perovskite solar cells and related modules and Sudip Chakraborty will explore materials properties and their applications for efficient solar cells through computational investigations.

Presently, the state-of-the-art perovskite solar cells have nearly 26 percent efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity. Despite good efficiency, they are not stable for long period of time. With the help of this grant, this research team aims to build perovskite solar cells exhibiting efficiency of more than 26 percent and remaining stable for over 10,000 hours.