Sofab Inks announces $6 million in funding to advance novel perovskite ETL materials

A Kentucky-based materials company, Sofab Inks, has raised $6 million to scale up a component used in a next generation of solar panels called perovskite cells. These panels are seen as a potential upgrade over today's standard silicon solar panels, offering higher efficiency, though they are not yet widely available for home installation.

The funding will help the company mass-produce a material called Tinfab, which replaces a fragile layer in perovskite solar cells known as C60. That layer has been a weak point: researchers have found it prone to cracking and peeling apart over time, which can shorten a panel's working life. Sofab says its replacement material bonds much more strongly and has shown steady performance after extended lab testing that simulates heat and humidity exposure, along with strong efficiency results on larger test panels. The company says it is working with several partners already building perovskite modules, and plans to triple its engineering team to move from small-scale production to full-size commercial panels.

For homeowners, this is not a product you can buy or install now. Perovskite solar technology is still moving from the lab toward commercial manufacturing, and this funding is aimed at solving one of the durability problems that has kept it from being ready for real-world roofs. If the technology matures as planned, it could eventually mean more efficient solar panels, but any home installations remain some way off.