Spicy Chili Pepper Chemical Improves Solar Panel Efficiency January 19, 2021 Share Chinese scientists find there’s more to chili peppers than health benefits and spicy dishes. Solar cells treated with the compound that makes chili peppers hot – capsaicin – have proven more efficient at converting solar energy. While ultra-thin, lead-based solar cells can absorb light more efficiently than silicon-based solar cells, they can’t convert energy efficiently because they lose some of it to heat. However, there’s a solution to that – to add a bit of heat. (Credit: Pixabay. Photo edit: Luana Steffen) Qinye Bao at Shanghai’s East China Normal University and his colleagues were confident that capsaicin would have an energy-boosting outcome since it can free up electrons that can continue to carry the charge. They added capsaicin to these ultra-thin perovskite solar cells during the manufacturing process to have samples to experiment on in the laboratory.