On September 2nd, the National Research Foundation (NRF) announced that an international research team that includes Professor Jeon Il, from the Department of Nano Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, discovered a novel method to enhance the power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSC) by adding a virus instead of chemical additives. PSCs refer to a type of solar cell that uses a perovskite-structured compound as the light absorption layer. PSCs are considered a promising photovoltaic technology as they have a higher energy production efficiency than silicon solar cells. Yet, they require chemical doping, which is the process of applying chemical additives, to enhance efficiency and long-term stability. However, chemical additives need a solvent that is hard to treat and expensive for conducting the process. In the study, the research team investigated the use of M13 bacteriophage, which can be obtained through mass production. The M13 bacteriophage was genetically engineered to enhance attraction between the perovskite and bacteriophage by amplifying lysine, an amino acid group. Combining amino acids on the surface of bacteriophage and lead ion on the surface of perovskite accelerated the growth of perovskite crystals and corrected surface defects. As a result, the newly developed PSCs were reported to have a power conversion rate of 22.3%, which is higher than 20.9% of other PSCs. According to Dongascience, a science magazine, Prof. Jeon said that “The research has high significance in that it demonstrated the potential to replace chemical additives with biomaterials.” This research was published in the international journal Advanced Energy Materials on the same day