Organolead halide perovskites: a family of promising semiconductor materials for solar cells

Great attention has recently been drawn to developing cost-effective, high efficiency solar cells to meet the ever increasing demand for clean energy. We have most recently witnessed a breakthrough and a rapid development in solid state, hybrid solar cells using organolead halide perovskites as light harvesters. These semiconductors can not only serve as sensitizer in solid state sensitized solar cells with efficiency up to unprecedented 15 %, but also function as both light absorber and hole conductor (or electron conductor) at the same time to display power conversion efficiency above 10 %. In this review, we will introduce their operation mechanism, structure, and especially the development of the organolead halide perovskite based solar cells. Based on the achievements that have been made to date, solid state photovoltaic device with superior performance than the present one is highly expected.