Shanghai recently produced a new type of cell---biotic solar cells---enhancing the efficiency of the direct transformation of light into electricity a leap towards the highest global level.

According to a report released by the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the research staff of Huadong Normal University has successfully "reproduced chloroplasts" using nami-materials in the lab; and has achieved a substantial amount of optical energy to be used to generate electricity.

The chloroplasts, where photosynthesis, are channels through which solar energy can be converted into chemical energy. In the lab tests, the scientific team did not "copy" a chloroplast outside the body of plants as before. Instead they cultivated a new type of dye-sensitive solar cells, similar in structure with chloroplasts, in an attempt to convert light into electricity. Sponsored by the special Shanghai Municipal nami-materials fund, and after three years of tests and probes, the biotic solar cells were finally turned out. Their light-electricity transformation efficiency exceeds 10 percent, nearing the world's highest level of 11 percent.