Lycopene, which makes fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes red, improves the efficiency of perovskite solar cells
Chemistry
30 May 2022
A tomato D and S Food Photography / Alamy Stock Photo
The chemical that makes tomatoes red could also improve the efficiency and stability of solar panels.
Most commercial solar cells are silicon-based, but a new generation of solar cells made from thin films of perovskite, a titanium and calcium crystal, promise greater efficiencies and are easier to work with. However, perovskites degrade far more quickly than silicon-based cells, so improvements in stability are highly sought after.
Donglei Zhou at Jilin University in Changchun, China, and his colleagues chose to add lycopene, a pigment found in tomatoes and other …