One of the most coveted scientific prizes is the successful harvesting of alternative energy sources. Forever, man has tried to take what there is plenty of and probably always will be: solar energy.
Photovoltaic technology is decades old, but it might be finally coming on its own. Expensive and cumbersome at the beginning, it has gone from thin to flexible, and now astoundingly could become as thin and inexpensive as paint.
This could resolve the long standing problem of cost. Most people would very much like to have access to solar panels or solar energy technology, but so far, the costs are high.
Enter Qiaoqiang Gan, a University of Buffalo scientist and engineer who is transforming photovoltaic cells into a product that could be cheaper than paint. Yes, you heard right.
Gan is developing cells that are made of plasmonic-enhanced materials. They are not yet as capable as the newest generation photovoltaics, but their cost is minute compared to the existing ones.
And because they are, literally, like paint, their liquid form allows them to be applied to almost any surface.
Conventional Photovoltaics are either made of silicon wafers or amorphous silicone/cadmium telluride. All of these materials are expensive and difficult to manifacture.
The paint like cells are instead made of carbon based materials. The only thing that limits these new cells is that their innate thinness does limit the energy load they can conduct.
What needs to be done then, is to achieve an increase of about 10% conductivity for it to be viable and competetive.
One way to do that is to add nanoparticles or patterned structures. And Gan's laboratory seems to be close to achieving that goal.
Source : Science Daily 5.14.13
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