Spray on solar cells
12 January 2005
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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Spray on some solar cells and wear cloths that charge your mobile cell phone, PDA or even your laptop on the road. Well it seems researchers from the Univeristy of Toronto have developed nanoparticles that could do just this. Professor Ted Sargent explained to the University of Toronto that "We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three or four nanometres in size. The nanoparticles were so small they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in paint," Because these particles pick up and convert infrared into electricity Professor Peter Peumans of Stanford University one of the reviewers further explained that "Our calculations show that, with further improvements in efficiency, combining infrared and visible photovoltaics could allow up to 30 per cent of the sun's radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to six per cent in today's best plastic solar cells." They key to the success seems to have been to use 8 carbon atoms strung together to get an electrical signal from the infrared light. |
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