Graphical abstract. Credit: Joule (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2022.09.010
PNRs are ribbon-like strands of the 2D material phosphorous, which, like graphene, are made of single-atom-thick layers of atoms. They were first created in 2019 by a team led by Professor Chris Howard of UCL following over a hundred theoretical papers predicting that they would have a range of fascinating and useful properties.
PNRs quickly found a role in their first energy device in solar cells in 2021, led by Dr. Tom Macdonald at Queen Mary University of London/Imperial College London and supported by the team at UCL. He showed that PNRs can be simply printed as an extra layer to benefit solar cell functionality and…