Research and Partnerships
Few universities can match the depth and breadth of Purdue's research capabilities and talent. As you explore our world-changing research, you'll quickly see why Purdue is a national and global leader in discovery and innovation.
The Building Blocks
Centers and Organizations
Events
Research at Purdue
- Inspired by mussels, a non-toxic underwater adhesive could bring new surgical glue
- New CubeSat propulsion system uses water as propellant
- Surgical assessment tool could rapidly analyze cancerous tissue samples, improve patient outcomes
- First measurements of iodine in the Arctic reveal questions about air pollution
- Purdue researchers create device to identify risks for breast cancer
Crystalline material could replace silicon to double efficiency of solar cells
A new material has been shown to have the capability to double the efficiency of solar cells by researchers at Purdue University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Conventional solar cells are at most one-third efficient, a limit known to scientists as the Shockley-Queisser Limit. The new material, a crystalline structure that contains both inorganic materials (iodine and lead) and an organic material (methyl-ammonium), boosts the efficiency so that it can carry two-thirds of the energy from light without losing as much energy to heat.
