Solar panels made with tomato pigment get a boost in efficiency

Lycopene, which makes vegetables and fruit comparable to tomatoes crimson, improves the effectivity of perovskite photo voltaic cells
Chemistry
30 Might 2022
A tomato D and S Meals Images / Alamy Inventory Photograph
The chemical that makes tomatoes crimson might additionally enhance the effectivity and stability of photo voltaic panels.
Most industrial photo voltaic cells are silicon-based, however a new generation of solar cells made from thin films of perovskite, a titanium and calcium crystal, promise higher efficiencies and are simpler to work with. Nonetheless, perovskites degrade way more shortly than silicon-based cells, so enhancements in stability are extremely wanted.
Donglei Zhou at Jilin College in Changchun, China, and his colleagues selected so as to add lycopene, a pigment present in tomatoes and different …