Tag: silicon
Fixing the interface for enhanced perovskite solar cell performance
With millions of people in the world still having no access to electricity, it is easy to predict that the world’s already challenging energy demands will only increase. Solar power has long presented itself as a promising renewable energy source, but the solar cells used in photovoltaics still suffer from relatively low efficiency, even when novel materials such as perovskites […]
Soil chronosequences shed light on the silicon soil-plant cycle
As soils age, geochemical weathering becomes less important for supplying silicon to the biosphere while terrestrial vegetation plays a greater role. Félix de Tombeur and Jean-Thomas Cornelis of the University of Liege (Belgium) visited the University of Western Australia to study two rare dune soil chronosequences spanning 2 million years. The impoverished soils of these dunes support biodiverse ecosystems. Their […]
The Dressed Photon: Shining light on the unknown using the unconventional area of off-shell science
The seas of science are unrelenting: researchers have spent lifetimes trying to attain the unattainable – and fallen overboard into obscurity when they were unsuccessful. In the disciplines of Quantum Field Theory and Materials Science, the ability to create light emitting devices from silicon has long been seen as a perpetual white whale. But, as Professor Motoichi Ohtsu, of Research […]