Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States, have found that by using the services of tiny viruses, they can make significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells. The research is based on findings that carbon nanotubes can enhance the efficiency of electron collection from the solar cell’s surface, although previous attempts to use the nanotubes have come up against two problems: production of carbon nanotubes results in a mix of two types of nanotubes – one that improves the performance of solar cells and one that has the opposite affect; and, nanotubes tend to clump, which reduces their effectiveness. The viruses can be used to control the arrangement of the nanotubes on the surface, keeping the tubes separate so they can’t short out circuits, and keeping them apart so they don’t clump. The team found that adding the virus-built structures enhanced the power conversion efficiency to 10.6 percent from 8 percent. Angela Belcher, the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy, said, “A little biology goes a long way,†adding that the team believes with further work, they can ramp up the efficiency even further. Belcher also said that because the process adds just one simple step to a standard solar cell manufacturing process, it would be easy to adapt existing production facilities, enabling fairly rapid implementation. The team’s findings were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.