DOHA: A Qatari research entity, through a collaborative research, has discovered chemical secrets of a new material that could make solar energy generation more economical and unleash the potential of this renewable resource.
The breakthrough by Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) of Qatar Foundation (QF) could be instrumental in Qatar’s plans to diversify energy supplies by tapping its abundant solar power.
According to experts, the natural power of the sun supplies the Gulf state with the annual equivalent of 1.5 million barrels of oil per square kilometre. However, much of this goes to waste.
The high cost of harvesting latent energy has made it an unattractive investment for ‘traditional’ energy companies, and it has become a major obstacle for Qatar in realising its ambition of generating a fifth of its energy needs from renewable resources by 2024.
QEERI, which has taken a leading role in energy and water security research in the region, may well have come up with a solution that will lead to less reliance on oil and gas in the future.
The research with AMBER, a research centre funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and jointly hosted by Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin and Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), has looked specifically at a newly discovered material called perovskite.
Perovskite, crystal-like in form, has excited the scientific world since its discovery in 2012 due to the fact that it is a cheaper and potentially more effective alternative to silicon, one of the traditional materials used in solar cells.
In three years, the mineral has made progress at unprecedented speeds.
The dramatic rise, however, has been cut short due to the material’s natural instability. Even to function, perovskites must be held in an inert atmosphere, exposed to almost no oxygen, low humidity levels, and no temperature variations.
The research has revealed important secrets about how the mineral functions and operates.
Until now, researchers have remained puzzled over how perovskite is able to store and capture solar energy, with scientific opinion divided over precisely what chemical process occurs naturally inside the material after it has been exposed to solar rays.
The mystery has been solved, with the research revealing how inorganic crystals inside perovskite are able to alter in structure following exposure to sunlight, allowing them to trap energy internally.
It is hoped that the finding, recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, will help the scientific community’s understanding of perovskite and bolster global research to address its innate stability issue.
The research, which took years to complete, was done by using advanced computer modelling and simulation tools, a process that involves creating and analysing a prototype of the material to predict its performance in the real world, and focusing on electronic properties of the material.
Dr Sabre Kais, Director, Theory, Modelling, and Simulation Group, QEERI, said: “The finding is the result of a lot of hard work. About two years ago, we started weekly seminars to discuss and understand properties of this class of materials.
The discovery happened as Dr Fadwa El Mellouhi, Dr Nouar Tabet, and Dr Fahhad Alharbi from QEERI and Dr Carlo Motta from AMBER presented and analysed results of their study during one of our seminars.” QEERI and AMBER were recently awarded a grant to continue research by Qatar National Research Fund.
The Peninsula
