The effectiveness of the perovskite panels was increased by the addition of the main component of chili pepper

The addition of hot chili peppers will make any dish sparkle with new colors. But as it turned out, chili can be used as a seasoning not only in cooking. So scientists from China decided to "season" promising perovskite solar panels with capsaicin (an alkaloid that is found in various types of chili peppers and gives pungency). I will now tell you about the results of this unusual experiment.

Solar panels, perovskite and chili peppers

The history of using perovskite in solar panels dates back to 2009. Then, at the dawn of the beginning of this promising material, its efficiency was only 4%, and by 2020, in the course of numerous experiments, its efficiency was almost 20%.

But the combination of this material with others can further increase its effectiveness. So, for example, in conjunction with silicon, the efficiency can reach 30%, the addition of indium helps to improve output power, and 2D additives and so-called "bulk" molecules significantly increase stability.

And now capsaicin, the substance that makes chili peppers bitter, can be added to that list of additional enhancing additives.

An unusual experiment and its results

Despite significant advances, perovskite has a number of disadvantages that scientists are trying to eliminate. One of these disadvantages is the presence of nonradiative recombination in the material.

In simple terms, these are cell defects that interfere with the passage of electrons and convert their energy into unnecessary heat, thereby reducing the efficiency of the entire panel.

Scientists were looking for a natural supplement and in the course of numerous experiments and calculations, they opted for capsaicin, which met their basic requirements.

So it was decided to add only 0.1% of the total to methyl ammonium triiodide. After performing further tests, the resulting perovskite solar panels with this additive showed the following results.

It turns out that such an additive allowed to increase the efficiency of the panels from the initial 19.1% (without impurities) to 21.88% with the additive. In addition, the stability of the panel also increased, and after 800 hours of exposure to the panels in the open air, they showed an efficiency of more than 90% of the original efficiency.

A careful examination of the doped panel has shown that capsaicin promotes charge transfer by reducing density of defects in the panel and forming a significantly better interface between different semiconductor layers.

Scientists also intend to study how effective the additive will be in other types of perovskite panels. So the work continues.

The scientists shared the results of the work already done on the pages of the Joule magazine. If you liked the material, then we evaluate it and subscribe. Thank you for your attention!