Imagine a car whose windows and sunroof can help top up its battery while parked under the sun, or a pair of smart glasses whose lenses can harvest light to power built-in electronics.
Such applications could become more feasible with a new type of ultrathin transparent solar cell developed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore).
Led by Associate Professor Annalisa Bruno, the NTU researchers created perovskite solar cells that are about 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair and around 50 times thinner than conventional perovskite solar cells.
Despite their thinness, the devices achieved some of the highest power conversion efficiencies reported for ultrathin perovskite solar cells to date.
Published in the journal ACS Energy Letters, their findings could pave the way for solar cells that can be integrated into buildings, vehicles and wearable devices without significantly changing their appearance.
Because the new solar cells are semi-transparent and color-neutral, they could potentially be incorporated into windows and façades without significantly changing how a building looks.
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