Technology

A U.S. research team has used protein bacteriorhodopsin to improve the efficiency of what it called ‘bioperovskite’ solar cells. The scientists used Förster Resonance Energy Transfer to predict the strength of long-range excitonic transport between the perovskite and protein layers.

Research from the United States has demonstrated how PV technology can be used to kill cancer cells. Although still at an embryonic stage, the findings of the study and initial test results suggest solar power could be an effective tool in relation to light-activated fluorescent dyes for disease diagnosis, image-guided surgery and site-specific tumor treatment.

An Italian research team has developed a device that it says can easily be integrated into a PV cell, and can boost its efficiency by converting more light particles into a high energy state before they are absorbed by the cell. The scientists claim that their innovation could offer a green‐to‐blue photon upconversion yield as high as 15%.

Cesium lead black perovskites could be interesting for solar cell development if their crystals are observed in their less efficient but more stable beta phase. The efficiency shortfall can be solved by healing emerging cracks in the surface of the cell using a choline iodide solution, according to an international team of scientists.

Researchers in the U.S. claim to have developed a manufacturing process based on the use of a latex balloon that could lead to the production of more efficient curved electronic devices, including hemispherical solar cells.

A research team from Columbia University has designed organic molecules that can produce excitons with a longer lifecycle than inorganic equivalents. The excitons have the potential to amplify the amount of electricity generated by the photons a solar cell absorbs.

A German research team claims to have created a new visualization technique it says can enable detailed mapping of the energetic landscapes of organic PV cells on a nano scale. The technique could lead to organic cells with reduced power losses.

The researchers have developed a new manufacturing process by using an ultra-thin absorbing layer made of 205-nanometer-thick gallium arsenide (GaAs) and a nanostructured back mirror.

A research team from Russia’s institutes NUST MISIS and IPCE RAS, and Italy’s University of Rome Tor Vergata, have applied an additional layer of p-type copper iodide semiconductor between perovskite and the hole-transport NiO layer of the cell. According to the scientists, this inorganic material is more accessible and easy-to-use.

Doping perovksite solar cells with potassium is said to eliminate interface trapping defects and mobile ion migration. ‘Hysteresis suppression’ is key for more efficient cells based on the promising material.