Genetic Manipulation of M13 Bacteriophage for Enhancing the Efficiency of Virus‐Inoculated Perovskite Solar Cells with a Certified Efficiency of 22.3%

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are considered to be one of the most promising solar energy harvesters owing to their high power conversion efficiency (PCE). To increase their PCE even further, additives are used; however, some of these additives pose certain disadvantages, which limit their applications to PSCs. Therefore, in this study, the nature‐inspired ecofriendly M13 bacteriophage is genetically engineered to maximize its performance as a perovskite crystal growth template and as a passivator for PSCs. The genetic manipulation of the M13 bacteriophage enhances the Lewis coordination between the perovskite materials and single‐stranded virus by amplifying a designated amino acid group. Among the 20 types of amino acids, lysine (Lys or K), arginine (Arg or R), and methionine (Aug or M) exhibit the strongest interaction with the perovskite materials. Results suggest that the K‐amplified genetically engineered M13 bacteriophage is the most effective. The K‐type M13 virus‐inoculated PSCs yield a PCE of 23.6% in the laboratory. This device, when taken to a national laboratory for verification, exhibits a certified forward and reverse bias‐combined efficiency (22.3%), which, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the highest efficiencies reported among the biomaterial‐based PSCs.

Homogeneously Miscible Fullerene inducing Vertical Gradient in Perovskite Thin‐Film toward Highly Efficient Solar Cells

“…[14,15] Not only the grain boundaries but also the perovskite surface can be passivated by forming an overcoating layer next to the perovskite film. A variety of materials have been reported to function as additives and passivation layers, which ranges from polymers [15][16][17][18][19] and biomaterials [20][21][22] to nanocarbons, such as carbon nanotubes [12,13] and fullerene derivatives. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Among the fullerene derivatives, phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester (PC 61 BM) has shown promising prospects owing to its high electron affinity and appropriate bandgap, the latter of which matches that of the perovskite photoactive materials.…”

How the ionic liquid BMIMBF4 influences the formation and optoelectronic properties of MAPbI3 thin films

“…This is either achieved by introducing passivating layers below and on top of the perovskite layer, 9–14 or by mixing different types of additives into the precursor solution. 15–21 The advantage of the latter approach is that the passivating effect is not limited to the interface, but also improves the perovskite grain boundary properties. For this bifunctional passivation approach of MHPs, ionic liquids (IL) have turned out to be especially suitable.…”

Alleviating defects in perovskites using single-walled carbon nanotubes

“…Photon-to-electricity conversion efficiency is one of the most important aspects in photovoltaic devices. To enhance the efficiency, various novel materials have been utilised as electrodes, charge-transporting layers, photoactive layers, and additives in solar cells [1][2][3][4][5][6]. However, these materials have common problems of being finite, costly, and irreproducible.…”