A polymer previously used to protect solar cells may find new applications in consumer electronics, reveals a KAUST team studying thin films capable of converting thermal energy into electricity.

A process developed at KAUST for depositing extremely thin and smooth films can make it easier to manufacture stable solar cells based on quantum dot technology.

Understanding how solar cell operation changes as it moves from the lab into the real world is essential for optimizing their design prior to mass production. KAUST researchers show how perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells function in a sunny and hot environment.

Evolutionary search has helped scientists predict the lowest energy structure of a two-dimensional (2D) material, B2P6, with some remarkable features, including structural anisotropy and Janus geometry.

Solar cells can now be made so thin, light and flexible that they can rest on a soap bubble. The new cells, which efficiently capture energy from light, could offer an alternative way to power novel electronic devices, such as medical skin patches, where conventional energy sources are unsuitable.

A novel technique for mass-producing better-performing perovskite-based solar cells could lay the foundations for next-generation devices that have more efficient power than currently available technologies.

Better understanding the science that underpins well-known techniques for developing quantum dots—tiny semiconducting nanocrystals—can help reduce the guesswork of current practices as material scientists use them to make better solar panels and digital displays.

Glasgow-born Professor Iain McCulloch has been named the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Interdisciplinary Prize.

Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering Derya Baran has been selected as a new member of the Global Young Academy (GYA), the first member to represent a Saudi Arabian institution.

Iain McCulloch, the director of the KAUST Solar Center, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. McCulloch, who is a KAUST professor of chemical science, as well as a Chair in Polymer Materials at Imperial College London, has made discoveries in chemical design and synthesis to control the assembly of organic semiconducting molecules to form ordered structures with specific electrical and optical properties, for use in a range of devices including transistors and solar cells.

KSC Center Director, Prof. Iain McCulloch is awarded the 2020 Blaise Pascal Medal in Materials Sciences

Long-lived inverted perovskite solar cells can achieve efficiencies close to that of highly efficient yet fragile conventional perovskite solar cells, researchers at KAUST have shown. The discovery could lead to perovskite solar panels that have operational lifetimes and light-capturing efficiencies that rival traditional silicon solar panels, but that are significantly simpler, less energy-intensive and less expensive to make.

An organic semiconductor photocatalyst that significantly enhances the generation of hydrogen gas could lead to more efficient energy storage technologies.

An innovative manufacturing technique developed by KAUST researchers has led to the development of hybrid organic transistors for use in next-generation electronic displays and large-area electronics.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in collaboration with ARMOR, a global technology company and pioneer of solar solutions has created a new style of outdoor seating, incorporating flexible, lightweight and semi-transparent solar technologies.

Wearable electronics could be perpetually powered by stretchy, self-mending materials that use body heat to generate electricity. Three carefully curated organic compounds have been combined to develop a prototype thermoelectric material that is both stretchy and self-healing, can generate its own electricity, and is robust enough to withstand the stresses and strains of daily life.

Adding one extra ingredient to the light-capturing layer of an emerging solar cell technology can significantly improve all aspects of its energy-harvesting performance, KAUST researchers have shown.

Some of the vast amount of wasted energy that machines and devices emit as heat could be recaptured using an inexpensive nanomaterial developed at KAUST. This thermoelectric nanomaterial could capture the heat lost by devices, ranging from mobile phones to vehicle engines, and turn it directly back into useful electricity.

Organic solar cells could soon rival traditional silicon-based photovoltaic technologies in terms of conversion efficiency. A team from the KAUST Solar Center has developed a computational approach that provides practical performance targets and useful rules to help design and develop material systems for optimal organic solar cells.

Inkjet printing is expected to fast track the commercialization of organic solar cells. Researchers from the KAUST Solar Center have exploited this technique to generate high-efficiency solar cells at large scales.