Kesterite tech news
Researchers at the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) announced a materials design breakthrough for kesterite (CZTS) solar cells on September 11, 2026. Featured on the cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C, the research establishes a defect--tolerance methodology that challenges traditional semiconductor rules to improve earth--abundant thin--film absorbers. By engineering the early--stage local chemical environment to suppress destructive copper out--diffusion and mitigate secondary phase segregation during crystallization, the team demonstrated a viable pathway to reduce open--circuit voltage deficits, a key technical bottleneck in deploying non--toxic kesterites in wide--bandgap tandem photovoltaic cells.