Printing a 30% solar cell
Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells are the leading candidate to push panels past the limits of silicon alone, but many record cells are made with lab-scale methods that do not translate easily to factories. According to TaiyangNews, researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now demonstrated a perovskite-silicon tandem cell with 30.2% efficiency using a process built around inkjet printing, which they describe as the first time such a cell...
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Organic Solar Cell Splits Water at a Record 7.9% Efficiency
A solar cell that makes hydrogen without a power supply
Hydrogen made from water and sunlight is one of the cleanest fuels on paper, but most designs still lean on an outside electrical boost. According to a report by Interesting Engineering, a team at South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has built an organic-semiconductor device that splits water entirely on its own, and set an efficiency record for its class while doing it.
The headline number is a 7.9% sol...
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A unique self-healing bio plastic
Scientists at Pennsylvania State University have create a power plastic that sticks together with a drop of water. This mold-able polymer heals itself when exposed to water.
It was observed that all squids around the world had proteins in their system which allow them to self-heal. This observation was the basis for creating this polymer.
The yield of these proteins is quite low per squid meaning that many animals would have to be processed in order to obtain a usable amount for use in pol...
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