Phosphorus nanoribbons show promise in batteries and solar cells

This is the claim of researchers at UCL whose discovery of  phosphorus nanoribbons in 2019 was predicted to revolutionise devices ranging from batteries to biomedical sensors. Now, the ‘wonder material’ has been used to increase lithium-ion battery lifetimes and solar cell efficiencies.

Phosphorus-only materials do not conduct electricity very well, which has hindered their usage for certain applications.

In the new study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers created nanoribbons made of phosphorus and tiny amounts of arsenic, which they found were able to conduct electricity at temperatures above -140^oC, while retaining the highly useful properties of the phosphorus-only ribbons.

In a statement, senior author Dr Adam Clancy, UCL Chemistry, said: “Early experimental work has already shown the remarkable promise of phosphorus nanoribbons, created for the first time by our UCL team in 2019. In 2021, for instance, it was shown that adding the nanoribbons as a layer to perovskite solar cells allowed the cells to harness more energy from the Sun.