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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
He has been researching perovskite solar cells for over a decade: Prof. Nam-Gyu Park from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in Seoul, winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, will visit the University of Stuttgart several times for shorter periods from September 2025. Together with host Prof. Michael Saliba, Head of the Institute for Photovoltaics (IPV), the chemical engineer from South Korea wants to further advance the technology.
Perovskites are not a special chemical element like silicon but rather a group of materials with a characteristic crystal structure. A major advantage of perovskite solar cells is that they are inexpensive to manufacture, efficient, and versatile. “My goal is to bring perovskite solar cells to market maturity,” says Nam-Gyu Park. To achieve this, they need to be long-term stable and scalable. A key element here is the use of nanostructured materials. These are Park’s specialty.
Prevent a drop in performance
Park is one of the pioneers of perovskite research and built the first functioning solar cell from perovskite. After that, he was involved in many other breakthroughs. “For example, we have improved the crystal quality and found out how to prevent the degradation of the cells caused by moisture, light, and heat.” The progress is enormous. While the efficiency of Park’s prototypes was still at 9%, perovskite solar cells are already converting around 27% of sunlight into electricity—albeit only in the laboratory for the time being. However, they still have their weaknesses when it comes to long-term stability. “To be truly competitive, perovskite solar cells would have to last as long as silicon solar cells. That is over 25 years. We’re not there yet, but we’re working on it,” says Park.
Nanostructures offer many advantages
The expert from South Korea is focusing on nanostructures. “This allows us to improve the photovoltaic performance and stability of perovskite solar cells because nanostructures prevent surface defects, improve charge separation, and reduce energy losses. In addition, nanostructures make perovskite cells “incredibly versatile,” says Park. Because of their low weight, flexibility, and low production temperatures, they are suitable not only for conventional solar cells but also for wearables, self-powered sensors, and power-generating windows. Other potential uses include building-integrated photovoltaics and plug-in vehicle systems. Because they are light and radiation has little effect on them, space satellites could also be equipped with perovskite solar cells.
Contributing to a sustainable energy future
What motivates Park the most? “With my research, I aim to contribute to a sustainable energy future. Solar energy is the largest renewable resource available to us.” Conventional technologies are reaching their limits in terms of efficiency and costs and have too high a CO2 footprint in production. Park’s goal is to make solar energy more cost-effective and adaptable to meet global electricity demand in the terawatt to petawatt range, including the growing power needs of artificial intelligence.“Perovskite cells have the potential to play a decisive role in this,” says Park.
Excellent research environment
In Stuttgart, Park will be working at the Institute for Photovoltaics together with the team of his host Michael Saliba. The two have known each other for many years. “Michael is a leading scientist in the field of perovskite research. I have great respect for his work,” says Park. The Institute of Photovoltaics offers an excellent research environment with state-of-the-art facilities. Park has several approaches in mind for his time in Stuttgart. In a joint project with Saliba’s team, he will be researching new material combinations: semiconducting polymers or inorganic layers. They are more environmentally friendly and could extend the service life of the cells. In addition, Park will carry out in-situ investigations of perovskite solar cells under illumination. “This will provide us with valuable insights into the nature of the excited states of perovskites.”
Deepening international research cooperation
Saliba anticipates intensive scientific collaboration with Park and new ideas for joint research. “Our approaches complement each other extremely well. While Prof. Park shares our interest in materials science fundamentals and structural optimization, our group also focuses on scalable manufacturing and process control. The visit offers the opportunity to intensify cooperation between the research groups in South Korea and Germany.
“I’m looking forward to working with the Stuttgart team,” says Park. “It’s a great opportunity to combine our strengths.”
About Prof. Nam-Gyu Park
Nam-Gyu Park is a tenured professor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Institute of Energy Science at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in South Korea. Born in 1960, Park began his academic career at Seoul National University, where he completed his doctorate in chemistry in 1995. From 2005 to 2009, he was Director of the Solar Cell Research Center at the Korean Institute of Science and Technology. He joined SKKU as a full professor in 2009. Park has received many awards, including the 2024 ENI Award in the “Energy Frontiers” category. In 2017, he was named “Citation Laureate” This award for highly cited researchers is considered an indicator for the possible award of the Nobel Prize.
International Nature Conference in Stuttgart
From September 29 to October 1, 2025, the “Who’s Who” of international perovskite science will meet at the University of Stuttgart for the Nature Conference “Advancing Perovskite-Based Photovoltaics”. What progress and challenges are there in the development of highly efficient solar cells based on perovskites? How can innovative PV technologies be transferred from basic research to practical application? These and other questions will be discussed by world-leading scientists and engineers from industry.
Prof. Nam-Gyu Park, Sungkyunkwan University, School of Chemical Engineering, tel: +82 31 290-7241, email: npark@skku.edu
Prof. Michael Saliba, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Photovoltaics, tel: +49 711 685-67140, email: michael.saliba@ipv.uni-stuttgart.de
https://natureconferences.streamgo.live/photovoltaics/register - program and registration for the Nature Conference
https://www.ipv.uni-stuttgart.de/en/
Nam-Gyu Park is one of the pioneers of perovskite research. As a Humboldt Prize winner, he is a gues ...
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Nam-Gyu Park is an expert in nanostructured perovskite solar cells and wants to bring the new techno ...
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