Chemical that makes chilli peppers spicy boosts solar panel cells
Jin Yang Solar cells treated with capsaicin – the compound that makes chilli peppers hot – have been found to be more efficient at converting solar energy. Ultra-thin solar cells made with lead-based materials can absorb light more efficiently than silicon-based solar cells, but they often can’t convert energy as efficiently because they lose some of it to heat. It turns out the solution is to add a bit of heat. Advertisement Qinye Bao at East China Normal University in Shanghai and his colleagues added capsaicin to these ultra-thin perovskite solar cells during the manufacturing proces...