On December 17 a seminar "Harmless Manufacturing of Affordable Perovskite Solar Cells: Green, Scalable, and Globally Accessible." was given by Mikhail (Mick) Pylnev, Specially-Appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry at Osaka University, Japan.

Global warming, driven by the excessive release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, is causing a steady rise in Earth’s average temperature. This warming leads to severe consequences. The turbulence in commercial flights has increased by over 50% in the past four decades, summers in Europe now routinely exceed 40°C where 30°C was once rare, and extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and wildfires disrupt our lives worldwide.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) offer certified efficiencies exceeding 26%, low-cost production via low-temperature processing, and compatibility with flexible, scalable manufacturing, making them a transformative solution for affordable photovoltaics, even in low- and lower-middle-income countries empowering them to expand clean energy access and contribute meaningfully to the global fight against warming. Despite these advantages, PSC fabrication traditionally relies on toxic solvents such as DMF and DMSO, which are increasingly restricted due to their harmful effects on workers. Moreover, these solvents are costly. Speaker’s current work develops a scalable green-solvent protocol for PSC fabrication, in which the most hazardous solvent used is the same one commonly found in hand sanitizers. This protocol also reduces processing costs by half compared to conventional methods. Additionally, I am exploring carbon electrodes and inorganic transport materials for PSCs, alongside a solar-powered chemical bath deposition method that requires no electricity. These innovations enable robust, reproducible PSC fabrication even in ambient or underground facilities with naturally stable temperature and humidity.

PSCs hold the promise to become the most affordable and easiest-to-fabricate solar cells known to date, and my mission is to make this a reality. In the lecture, the speaker shared the breakthrough technologies, the challenges overcome, and a clear path forward to deploy clean, accessible solar energy where it is needed most.

About the speaker:

Dr. Mikhail (Mick) Pylnev is a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry at Osaka University, Japan (since 2023). He earned a Specialist Degree in Materials Science on a full scholarship from the National University of Science and Technology MISIS, Russia (2006-2012), and a PhD in Materials Science (2015-2019) on the MOST Scholarship under the supervision of Prof. Ming-Show Wong at National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan. As an NSTC Postdoctoral Fellow (2019-2020) at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, he worked on electron transport layers for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and conducted substrate wettability studies that reshaped community understanding in the field. From 2020 to 2022, he established the UAE’s first independent PSC fabrication facility at the University of Sharjah, achieving 20% efficiency and enabling high-efficiency programs at two universities and the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), earning media recognition. At Osaka University, he set a Japanese PSC efficiency record of 23% in 2023. Also, he introduced two important and cost-free techniques to PSC manufacturing: a sequential aqueous SnO2 deposition that reduces electron-transport-layer roughness by a factor of four, and an electrical post-treatment that can recover underperforming PSCs.

He holds three patents and has authored multiple papers in high-impact journals such as Advanced Functional Materials and Solar RRL. He has taught Condensed Matter Chemistry in Japan and Materials Science in Taiwan, and has supervised more than a dozen student research projects. His goal is to expand solar-energy access in developing countries, helping to address global warming in regions with limited climate-action capacity. His technologies, extensive experience in humid climates, and proven ability to independently develop PSC processes strongly position him to achieve this mission.