I Charge to the Finish 'Cos I'm Made With Spinach!

[Tuckerfan]

I’m Popeye the solar cell!

An electronic device that uses spinach to convert light into electrical charge has been developed by US researchers.

Shuguang Zhang at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, and research collaborators integrated a protein complex derived from spinach chloroplasts with organic semiconductors to make a solar cell that could be combined with solid state electronics.

Practical models are a long way off, however.

The system is far from perfect, however. The peptides used only keep the protein complex stable for about three weeks and the cells convert only 12% of light to electrical charge. But Zhang says efficiency could be boosted dramatically by layering numerous cells on top of one another, as they will still let some light through.

[Polycarp]

Heh! More evidence of the Popeyeist Conspiracy!!

:dubious: