Use of various species in different ways have always been an integral part of human well-being but now scientists and engineers are looking for their (species) exotic properties to be helpful in improving the technological feats. Develoment and use of solar cells have been very dear to everybody in order to make use of renewable source of energy (SUN) to meet the ever growing demands of electricity by human in an environmental friendly and sustainable way. Life stability along with efficiency and cost of solar cells is the major desired attribute of solar cells. Development of solar cells making use of chilli for their enhanced stability and efficiency has recently been advocated by scientists and engineers. It is said that a touch of chilli may create more stable and efficient photovoltaic cells. While solar cells made with lead-based materials show promise in solar cell technologies, they are plagued by an “undesirable” electron level process called nonradiative recombination, which reduces efficiency and exacerbates heat losses.
Perovskites are a class of human-made compounds with the same type of crystal structure as the mineral calcium titanium oxide, the first perovskite crystal known. They make highly efficient solar cells that could potentially replace traditional silicon solar panels. Chilli is known to have a range of health benefits, from reducing infections to improving digestive performance but here’s one we probably didn’t know so far. A team of scientists from China and Sweden found that by sprinkling capsaicin into ultra-thin perovskite solar cells they could improve the cells’ efficiency at storing solar energy. It appears a pinch of capsaicin – the chemical compound that gives chillies their spice – may also improve perovskite solar cells– the devices that make up solar panels. Considering the electric, chemical, optical and stable properties of capsaicin, scientists preliminarily found that it would be a promising candidate. Adding capsaicin expands the grains which make up the active material of the solar cell, allowing it to more effectively transport electricity.
The team report in their findings that the capsaicin made the solar cells more efficient with a power conversion of 21.88%, compared to 19.1% without capsaicin. The use of capsaicin in solar cells also addressed other defects like Capsaicin-spiced cells were found to maintain more than 90% of their initial efficiency after 800 hours of storage in ambient air. The chilli-free control device lost more than 60% of its initial efficiency over the same period. Capsaicin also appeared to reduce the perovskite film’s defect density, increasing electron density and boosting charge transport. The researchers also observed a smaller leakage current in the capsaicin cells.
While capsaicin-spiced cells may provide a low-cost, widely available additive for the development of solar cells, the authors say future research is needed to investigate the compounds effect on non-toxic, lead-free perovskites. With these fruitful results of the use of capsicum towards the development of stable and efficient solar cells indicates that in the future, green and sustainable forest-based biomaterial additive technology will be a clear trend in non-toxic, lead-free perovskite materials. Further, we hope this will eventually yield a fully green perovskite solar cell for a clean energy source.
