Source: Hubei Daily  8^th Sep 2026

Hubei Daily (Reporter: Wang Chenglong, Correspondent: Chu Renxuan) — "Our third-generation prototype is undergoing data validation, and the first mass-produced product is expected to hit the market by the end of this year." On September 1, inside the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing at Wuhan University of Technology, senior researcher Ku Zhiliang was operating a row of equipment resembling steamers.

The hybrid perovskite photovoltaic film "grown" by this equipment can enable solar panels to absorb more bands of sunlight. Solar panels currently on the market can only absorb energy from specific bands of sunlight. The photovoltaic film material developed by Ku Zhiliang's team can "digest" energy from other bands of sunlight. When used in tandem with existing solar panels, it can boost photovoltaic conversion efficiency from 27% to over 35%, with the potential to further increase it to 40% in the future.

In 2012, Ku Zhiliang entered Huazhong University of Science and Technology to pursue a doctorate and began researching photovoltaic film materials. He and his team members found that hybrid perovskite crystals formed by hybridizing chemicals such as iodides, amines, and lead salts can convert light energy into electrical energy, giving them broad application prospects in the photovoltaic industry.

Ku Zhiliang operates a prototype for an experiment.

The prospects are promising, but Ku Zhiliang found that although this material has greater photoelectric conversion potential than the photovoltaic films widely used on the market today, the crystal structures it formed in the laboratory environment were highly disordered, greatly diminishing its photoelectric conversion performance. Initially, the conversion rate was only 3%.

Ku Zhiliang explained: "only when multiple chemicals 'build' the crystal structure according to the standards expected by the researchers during the hybridization process can its photoelectric conversion performance be fully realized. It's like building a house—you must follow the blueprint."

Through hundreds of experiments, Ku Zhiliang and his team developed a solid-state growth method: placing lead iodide solid in a vacuum environment, injecting chemical gases composed of ammonium salts and other substances, and precisely controlling temperature and pressure so that a hybrid perovskite film with a uniform crystal structure automatically "grows" on the lead iodide solid, effectively improving photoelectric conversion efficiency.

In early 2024, the team set out to build the first-generation prototype. A research team from Hainan University caught wind of it and placed an order right away.

Having the first prototype recognized by the market greatly encouraged Ku Zhiliang's team. "In March 2025, our team launched R&D on the third-generation prototype. This generation of equipment can more precisely control parameters such as temperature, pressure, and gas flow rate, and can be 'tailor-made' according to the photoelectric conversion efficiency and film production costs the customer wants," Ku Zhiliang said.

"China's photovoltaic industry is climbing from scale to quality," Ku Zhiliang said. In the future, the team plans to invest in building a production line in Hubei, so that photovoltaic technology can not only be deployed widely, but also used with precision.