With the deepening of study on perovskite solar cells (PSCs) all over the world, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) has rapidly increased from 3.8% to 25% in recent years, and the perovskite material is expected to become an ideal absorption material for solar cells at low cost in the future. However, some problems are necessary to solve on the way toward practical applications of perovskite solar cells. This paper summarizes the recent research progress from the aspects of structural improvement for further PCE enhancement, material stability and life improvement, large-area preparation, replacement of toxic ingredients, and resolution of hysteresis in performance characterization. The progress in these field has been very fruitful, and will provide references for future research.

Currently, steam generation using solar energy mostly relies on optical concentration, which is a costly system, to generate the high temperature needed for water evaporation. Here, the development of a low-cost and scalable approach based on thermal concentration for solar steam generation is reported. The system was demonstrated to be capable of generating 100–120°C steam under ambient air conditions without optical concentration. A solar thermal efficiency could be achieved up to 13% at an average solar irradiance of only 670 W m−2. The new solar steam generation system, with its simple structure, great effectiveness, and low cost, holds the promise of significantly expanding the application domain of solar thermal systems.

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