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					</table><p>Electrons can jump across solar materials in approximately 18 femtoseconds, less than 20 quadrillionths of a second, according to researchers from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cambridge</a>’s <a href="https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St John&#8217;s College</a>. The researchers claim that this speed of movement is almost the fastest possible in nature, with charge separation observed within a single molecular vibration.</p>
<p>This observation can help researchers design more efficient methods of harvesting sunlight and converting it into electricity.</p>
<p>Published in Nature Communications, the study involved the Cavendish Laboratory and the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, alongside collaborators in Italy, Sweden, the U.S., Poland, and Belgium.</p>
<p>Pratyush Ghosh, Research Fellow at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, said, “We deliberately designed a system that should not have transferred charge this fast. By conventional design rules, this system should have been slow, and that is what makes the result so striking.”</p>
<p>The study stated that one second contains approximately eight times as many femtoseconds as all the hours that have passed since the universe’s beginning. At this scale, atoms inside molecules vibrate physically.</p>
<p>Ghosh explained that during the tests conducted by the researchers, the electron was launched in a single coherent burst rather than drifting randomly. The vibration acted like a molecular catapult. “The vibrations do not just accompany the process; they actively drive it.”</p>
<p>During the testing, the research team observed that charge transfer unfolded as fast as the molecule’s own motion speed of motion. The electrons migrated on the same clock as the atoms.</p>
<p>The team claims that the study’s findings challenge long-established design rules in solar energy research. Until now, scientists believed that ultrafast charge transfer requires large energy differences between materials and strong electronic coupling. These features could reduce efficiency by limiting voltage and increasing energy loss.</p>
<p>Light striking carbon-based materials creates a tightly bound energy packet called an exciton, the research team explained. An exciton is a pairing of an electron and a hole. In solar cells, this pair must split into free charges rapidly for efficient operation of photodetectors and photocatalytic systems.</p>
<p>Faster separation results in less energy loss. The rapid separation determines the efficiency of solar panels and other light-harvesting systems that convert sunlight into usable energy.</p>
<p>The research team deliberately built a ‘weak’ system to test whether the trade-off involving energy loss for fast electron transfer was unavoidable. It placed a polymer donor and a non-fullerene acceptor side-by-side in an organic semiconductor system, observing a negligible energy offset with only minimal interaction. Such conditions, the team said, should have significantly slowed the charge transfer.</p>
<p>The electron instead crossed the interface in 18 femtoseconds, which is considerably faster than that of many previously studied organic systems, and the speed is observed on the natural timescale of atomic motion.</p>
<p>The team used ultrafast laser measurements to study this transfer. It noted that the polymer begins vibrating in specific high-frequency motions after absorbing light. Such vibrations combine electronic states and launch the electron across the boundary between the two solar cell materials, producing directional, ballistic motion rather than slow, random diffusion.</p>
<p>Based on this study, the research team claimed that solar cells can now incorporate design materials that use molecular motion, turning vibrations from a limitation into a tool.</p>
<p>Electrons arriving at acceptor molecules will trigger a new coherent vibration. “That coherent vibration is a clear fingerprint of how fast and how cleanly the transfer occurs,” researchers said.</p>
<p>The test results demonstrate that the ultimate speed of charge separation is not determined solely by static electronic structure but also depends on molecular vibrations. “That gives us a new design principle. In a way, this gives us a new rulebook. Instead of fighting molecular vibrations, we can learn how to use the right ones,” Ghosh said.</p>
<p>Ultrafast charge separation is important for technologies such as organic solar cells, light sensors, hydrogen fuel-producing systems, and similar rapid processes. Similar processes occur in natural photosynthesis.</p>
<p>In 2025, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/mit-research-demonstrates-29-boost-in-silicon-solar-cell-efficiency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demonstrated</a> a new interface architecture that pushes the efficiency of traditional silicon solar cells beyond the long-standing single-junction theoretical limit of 29.4%. The study focused on integrating the singlet exciton fission with crystalline silicon cells through interfacial and device-level engineering. The findings present a promising route to achieving up to 42% efficiency.</p>


Electrons Can Move Across Solar Materials at Record Speed: Research


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					</table><p>A team of scientists from <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CSIRO</a>, the Australian National Science Agency, have reported a new record efficiency in roll-to-roll fully printed solar cells.</p>
<p>In a paper published in <em>Nature Communications</em> journal, the team demonstrated performances for solar cells of 15.5% efficiency on a small scale and 11% for a 50 cm2 module, a record for fully printed solar cells containing perovskite.</p>
<p>While silicon solar panels are rigid and heavy, printed solar cells are highly flexible and portable and have a wide range of applications ranging from urban construction, mining operations, emergency management, disaster relief, and space to defense and personal electronics.</p>
<p>The flexible solar cells were produced using a method in which all components of the device were fully printed from inks. Carbon-based inks were used to replace gold in the solar cell, dramatically reducing the cost while maintaining high performance.</p>
<p>The solar cells were printed using roll-to-roll techniques, which can be used to print solar cells on a long, continuous roll of plastic.</p>
<p>This lightweight and flexible solar technology, printed onto thin plastic films, is expected to expand solar cell usage and meet the growing demand for renewable energy.</p>
<p>&#8220;CSIRO&#8217;s thin and lightweight solar cells are now on the cusp of emerging from the lab to create clean energy in the real world. Roll-to-roll printing allows for the solar cells to be manufactured on very long, continuous rolls of plastic, which can dramatically increase the rate of production,&#8221; said the agency&#8217;s Renewable Energy Systems Group Leader Anthony Chesman.</p>
<p>The team, which collaborated with researchers from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cambridge</a>, <a href="https://www.monash.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Monash University</a>, the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Sydney</a><u>,</u> and the <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of New South Wales</a>, solved several engineering problems across a large surface area of interconnected modules to achieve record results.</p>
<p>&#8220;We developed a system for rapidly producing and testing over ten thousand solar cells a day – something that would have been impossible to do manually. We&#8217;ve also alleviated the need to use expensive metals, such as gold, in their production by using specialized carbon inks, which further reduces production costs,&#8221; stated Principal Research Scientist Doojin Vak.</p>
<p>Incorporating an advanced material called perovskite, CSIRO&#8217;s printed solar panels differ from the silicon solar panels found on Australian roofs. &#8220;Our thin, lightweight solar can be easily transported anywhere there is sun,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The team also sent the solar panels to space to test their performance, to further optimize and provide a reliable energy source for future space endeavors.</p>
<p>Recently, scientists from the National University of Singapore <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/record-efficiency-tandem-solar-cell" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a record energy conversion efficiency of 27.1% from a novel triple-junction solar cell, which promises to overcome current limitations in solar technology.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, researchers also <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/bulky-molecules-perovskite-solar-last-longer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that adding bulky molecules can make perovskite solar cells last longer, surpassing silicon solar cells&#8217; maximum theoretical efficiency.</p>


Australian Scientists Report Record 15.5% Efficiency for Printed Solar Cells

<p>Researchers at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cambridge</a> claimed to have found a way to prevent the loss of electric current that declines the efficiency of organic solar cells.</p>
<p>Organic solar cells are flexible, semi-transparent, cheap, and environmentally friendly to produce. These cells can expand the range of applications for solar technology and could be wrapped around the exteriors of buildings. The cells could also be used for the efficient recycling of the energy used for indoor lighting.</p>
<p>The researchers said a loss pathway in organic solar cells makes them less efficient than silicon solar cells at converting sunlight into power. They found that a critical loss mechanism in an organic solar cell is caused by recombination to triplet exciton.</p>
<p>Electrons in solar can be lost through recombination, where electrons lose their energy and fall back into an empty hole state. Organic solar cells are more prone to recombination due to stronger attraction between the electron and hole in carbon-based materials than in silicon. Therefore, it requires electron donor material and an electron acceptor material to stop the electron and hole from rapid recombination.</p>
<p>To prevent the recombination of electrons and holes into triplet excitons, the researchers used a combination of spectroscopy and computer modeling. They engineered strong molecular interactions between the electron donor and electron acceptor materials. They also manipulated molecules inside an organic solar cell to prevent the loss of electric current through triplet excitons.</p>
<p>Alexander Gillett, the lead author from the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, said, “Organic solar cells can do lots of things that inorganic solar cells cannot, but their commercial development has plateaued in recent years, in part due to their inferior efficiency. A typical silicon-based solar cell can reach efficiencies as high as 20% to 25%, while organic solar cells can reach efficiencies of around 19% under laboratory conditions, and real-world efficiencies of about 10% to 12%.”</p>
<p>According to the researchers, this method provides a strategy to achieve organic solar cells with efficiencies of over 20% by stopping recombination into triple exciton states. They also offer design rules for electron donor and electron acceptor materials to achieve an efficiency of over 20%. The guidelines will enable chemistry groups to design new material that blocks recombination into triplet excitons and enhance organic solar cells with efficiency closer to silicon solar cells.</p>
<p>Last year, a research team from the South China University of Technology <a href="https://mercomindia.com/organic-solar-cells-claim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a new method of producing organic solar cells, eliminating the need for potentially toxic materials while maintaining high conversion efficiencies.</p>
<p>Mercom had earlier <a href="https://mercomindia.com/organic-solar-cells-windows-generate-energy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that a research team from the University of Michigan set a new efficiency record for color-neutral, transparent solar cells, with 8.1% efficiency and 43% transparency through an organic/carbon-based design.</p>
<p>Image credit: University of Cambridge</p>


Researchers Find a Way to Prevent Electric Current Loss in Organic Solar Cells

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