Researchers developed a new material technology to create high-efficiency perovskite solar cells using eco-friendly organic materials dissolved in peppermint oil or walnut aroma. The new polymers overcame the instability issue of conventional perovskite solar cells, maintaining 88% efficiency after 30 days.
Developed by NREL and NIU researchers, the technique prevents toxic lead from leaking into water when perovskite solar cells are damaged. The additive layers reduce lead toxicity without affecting cell performance.
Researchers developed a new organic photovoltaic cell with an efficiency of 17%, achieved through optimized chemical structures and improved processability. The study demonstrates the potential for larger-area production, expanding the field of organic photovoltaics.
Researchers at Brown University found that perovskite films crack easily but can be healed with compression or moderate heat, which could improve durability and long-term reliability for commercialization
A new approach to electrostatic layer deposition has been reported, leading to efficient perovskite solar cells. The technique produces uniform electron transport layers without the need for a vacuum environment, enabling the creation of high-efficiency solar cells with improved power-conversion efficiencies.
A new study models the potential of semitransparent organic solar cells to power greenhouses, finding that many can become energy neutral in warm or temperate climates. The technology allows greenhouses to generate energy from unused light while minimizing impact on plant growth.
Researchers from ITMO University have proposed a technology for manufacturing high-efficiency solar cells based on A3B5 semiconductors integrated on a silicon substrate, which may increase the efficiency of existing photovoltaic converters by 1.5 times. The new technology could lead to more effective and affordable solar energy solutions.
A new study outlines a roadmap for perovskite-based solar cells to gain traction in the global market. Starting with higher-value niche markets, manufacturers can avoid steep initial capital costs and gradually expand production capabilities.
Researchers developed a regioselective bay-functionalization method to synthesize PDI-based acceptor materials. This approach lifts the LUMO level, reducing energy offset for charge separation and non-radiative recombination loss in organic solar cells.
A new consensus statement has been established to assess and report the stability of perovskite photovoltaic devices. The agreement aims to improve reproducibility in studies by providing a set of testing procedures specific to this technology, including light-dark-cycling and intrinsic stability testing.
Researchers have developed anti-solar cells that can harness power from infrared radiation at night, offering a potential solution for balancing the power grid around the day-night cycle. The devices work by emitting light instead of absorbing it, using different materials and physics.
A new production technique for CdTe material uses a high-pressure furnace and produces high-purity crystals in a rapid timeframe, outperforming current methods. The technique also eliminates concerns about explosions and allows for easier doping of the material.
Researchers at MIT and NREL propose slimming down silicon cells to reduce costs and increase manufacturing capacity. By reducing wafer thickness from 160 micrometers to as little as 40 micrometers, the study suggests a significant reduction in material usage and potential savings.
A recent study found that perovskite solar cells absorb lead from the environment, with lead from these cells being ten times more bioavailable than from other industrial sources. This could have significant implications for the safety of these materials.
The CSU team aims to improve the performance of cadmium telluride solar cells by tackling efficiency problems associated with the back contact layer, currently a bottleneck in widespread adoption. They hope to achieve a 25% light-to-energy efficiency with an improved back contact architecture.
A series of five-year tests measured solar panel performance, providing data for better error correction factors and choosing the most efficient panels. The results highlight a simple data aggregation method that yields reasonable results without bias.
Researchers have created BaZrS3 thin films with strong light absorption and good charge transport, making them ideal for photovoltaics and LEDs. The new materials could lead to more efficient solar panels and lower energy costs.
KAUST researchers have devised a way to turn rigid silicon into solar cells that can be stretched by up to 95 percent while retaining a high solar energy capture efficiency of 19 percent. This breakthrough overcomes the rigidity limitation of silicon, allowing for flexible wearable electronics and robots.
Researchers have improved the efficiency of organic solar technologies by tweaking the underlying chemistry, boosting power output from 1% to 18%. The new approach uses non-fullerene acceptors, which can be shaped, colored, and semi-transparent, offering advantages over traditional silicon-based solar cells.
A new material synthesized by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Lithuanian scientists can form a molecular-thick electrode layer, enabling highly efficient perovskite single-junction and tandem solar cells. The material is cheap, scalable, and forms good contact with perovskite material.
A new thermodynamic formula reveals bifacial cells can generate 15-20% more sunlight to electricity than monofacial cells, taking into consideration different terrain and surfaces. The formula helps companies design more efficient next-generation solar cells.
Associate Professor Menglin Chen's team has created a light-controlled neural stimulating scaffold inside the body using nanofibers coated with photovoltaic nanomaterials. This non-genetic method can locally stimulate cells electrically and has shown regenerative effects on neural model cells.
Researchers at NREL successfully integrated aluminum into their HVPE reactor and demonstrated the growth of semiconductors aluminum indium phosphide (AlInP) and aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP). This breakthrough could lead to cheaper solar cells with comparable efficiency to MOVPE-grown ones.
Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) have discovered a flaky material that improves the performance of organic solar cells. The material, made from tungsten disulfide flakes, enhances the cell's ability to gather holes and reduces resistance, leading to higher efficiency.
Researchers at the University of Central Florida used machine learning to optimize perovskite solar cell materials, enabling flexible and efficient energy production. The study's findings have the potential to revolutionize energy usage and storage.
Scientists developed flexible and efficient transparent solar cells with colour-neutrality using silicon microwires embedded in a polymer matrix. The devices demonstrate transparency of up to 55% and excellent flexibility, making them promising for future transparent solar cells.
Researchers in Korea have developed a strategy to transform opaque solar cells into transparent ones, allowing for more efficient energy harvesting. The transparent solar cells have a high-power conversion efficiency of 12.2 percent and long-term stability, making them ideal for turning windows into solar panels.
Researchers at Tallinn University of Technology have improved the efficiency of monograin layer solar cells by replacing copper with silver in absorber material. This innovation increases efficiency by 2%, making it an attractive solution for renewable energy production.
Engineers at Lehigh University have mapped the energy transport mechanism of chalcogenide perovskite, a promising material for solar energy generation. The research demonstrates tunability, essential for its potential applications.
A research team at Kanazawa University investigated the molecular mechanisms behind organic solar cell damage from sunlight. They found that UV light causes fragile molecules to degrade, leading to reduced efficiency. This study may lead to the development of more robust and efficient solar cells.
Researchers at the Institute for Basic Science discovered a carrier multiplication process in 2D semiconductors that could improve the efficiency of solar cells. The phenomenon is more efficient in 2D materials than in bulk semiconductors and has the potential to increase the maximum power conversion efficiency up to 46%
Researchers have developed ternary organic solar cells with non-fullerene electron acceptors or polymer donors, improving spectral response and photon-harvesting capabilities. The addition of these third components enhances energy and charge transfer, leading to increased efficiency and potentially semi-transparent solar cells.
Researchers at OIST have characterized the structural defects that prompt ion movement in perovskite materials, which can destabilize the device. The study's findings may inform future engineering approaches to improve perovskite solar cells' performance and stability.
Scientists from NTU and UG have developed a method to identify the best pairs of materials in next-generation perovskite solar cells, which can capture more electricity. The new technique uses extremely fast lasers to observe how an energy barrier forms when perovskite is joined with a material that extracts electrical charges.
Arizona State University received five prestigious Department of Energy awards totaling $9.8 million to advance solar energy research and development. The funding will support projects to lower solar electricity costs, boost manufacturing, and make solar systems more resilient.
A new solar power generator prototype developed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and US research teams will be deployed on a NASA flight to the International Space Station. The compact system could provide unprecedented watt per kilogram of power, critical to lowering costs for private space flight.
Researchers at Lund University have found that 30% of energy in certain light-absorbing iron molecules disappears unexpectedly. To improve efficiency, they aim to close this loophole by exploring methods for extracting all the energy from these molecules.
A new type of perovskite material eliminates lead and improves stability for next-generation solar cells. These materials have been shown to be as much as 28% efficient compared to current panels capturing only 15-18%. The new organic-inorganic hybrid structure also offers a blueprint for other functional hybrid materials.
Scientists at Cambridge discovered that perovskite materials can be more efficient when their chemical compositions are less ordered, simplifying production processes and lowering costs. This is achieved by creating areas with different compositions that trap energized charge carriers, improving solar cell efficiency.
Rice University scientists have overcome a major hurdle keeping perovskite-based solar cells from achieving mainstream use by engineering defects and retaining efficiency. They replaced lead with indium, resulting in cells that can be made in open air and last for months.
Scientists visualize grain structure of perovskite crystals without damaging solar cells, revealing misorientation as primary contributor to strain buildup. The discovery enables researchers to explore strategies to reduce or eliminate non-radiative recombination, a major efficiency-dampening factor in next-gen solar cells.
A Swansea-led project aims to provide clean, affordable and reliable power to local communities in developing countries using perovskite solar cells. The £800,000 funding will support the construction of demonstrator buildings and collaboration with experts from five countries.
Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a new approach to detect and attack cancer cells using light-activated fluorescent dyes. The breakthrough utilizes technology traditionally reserved for solar power, offering promising results in breast, lung, and skin cancer cell lines and mouse models.
Researchers at Penn State have successfully increased the efficiency of perovskite solar cells by adding the protein bacteriorhodopsin, boosting it from 14.5% to 17%. This breakthrough could lead to more environmentally friendly and cost-effective bioperovskite solar cell technology.
Researchers at the University of Würzburg have developed two new spectroscopic methods to study energy transport on the nanoscale. By deciphering the behavior of double-walled nanotubes, they aim to improve artificial light-harvesting antennas and photovoltaics.
Researchers found that functionalized carbon nanotubes enhance the interaction between perovskite and CNTs, improving their performance and stability. The study revealed a self-recrystallization process in perovskite at room temperature, which can be accelerated by frequent measurements but degrades stability.
Researchers achieved high power conversion efficiencies in organic solar cells by designing a highly crystalline donor-acceptor interface. The V_oc was found to increase with increasing acceptor layer crystallinity, resulting in reduced energy loss and improved efficiency.
A new research project will improve solar cell technology and explore new uses for photovoltaic devices. The collaboration includes five universities in three countries, with a focus on additive manufacturing and 3D printing for low-cost solar cell production.
Researchers from Tokyo Tech and Kanazawa University develop an eco-friendly device using solar cells to catalyze electrochemical oxidation reactions. The device, which uses organic materials, achieves high efficiency by directly utilizing photogenerated holes in chemical reactions.
Scientists from NUST MISIS and University of Rome Tor Vergata developed a new approach to design perovskite solar cells using MXene, increasing efficiency by more than 25% compared to original prototypes. The innovative material enhances charge extraction through interfaces.
A new study by MIT researchers suggests that solar panels with lifetimes as short as 10 years can make economic sense for grid-scale installations. The team analyzed three types of solar installations and found that the levelized cost of electricity, not just the panel's lifetime, determines economic viability.
Researchers create standardized way to quantify and compare solar power variations influenced by cloud coverage, time of day, and dust particles. This method may help optimize photovoltaic farms and inform engineering and policy for more efficient solar power production.
The DGIST research team has developed a flexible CZTSSe thin-film solar cell with an unprecedented efficiency of 11.4%, breaking the previous record. This achievement enables mass production using eco-friendly materials, making it easier to commercialize and apply in various fields like wearables, buildings, and automobiles.
Researchers have demonstrated a ternary organic solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 14.3%, beating the typical drop in fill factor upon increasing the thickness of the active layer. The addition of PC61BM improves hole and electron mobilities, facilitating charge transport and leading to improved efficiencies.
Researchers at Linköping University have developed organic solar cells that can harness indoor light to produce electricity. The cells achieve high energy efficiency, with some variants converting up to 26.1% of ambient light into electricity.
Researchers designed a quinoxaline-based acceptor that enables efficient organic solar cells with low energy losses. The devices achieved high power conversion efficiencies and improved short-circuit current, fill factor, and open-circuit voltage.
Researchers at Kaunas University of Technology and Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin created a tandem perovskite-CIGS solar cell with an efficiency of 23.26%, shattering the previous record value. The cell's intermediate layer of organic molecules enables self-assembling on rough surfaces.
Researchers develop a low-cost thermoelectric generator that harnesses temperature differences to produce renewable electricity at night, when solar power is not available. The device can generate up to 25 milliwatts of energy per square meter and has the potential to be scaled for practical use.
Researchers at the University of Warwick have discovered that organic solar cells only need 1% of their surface area to be electrically conductive, opening up possibilities for composite materials and improved device performance. This breakthrough could enable flexible solar cells to become a commercial reality sooner.
A study by Aalto University and international partners predicts a 35-fold increase in global cooling demand by the end of the century, driven by rising temperatures and economic prosperity. The researchers estimate that solar power can meet this growing demand, with the potential to power entire countries like France or India.