Posted on 01/11/2005 9:16:42 AM PST by Conservative Canuck
In a paper published on the Nature Materials Web site on January 9, senior author and Professor Ted Sargent, Nortel Networks -- Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Toronto's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his team report on their achievement in tailoring matter to harvest the sun's invisible, infrared rays.
"We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three or four nanometres in size," Sargent said. "The nanoparticles were so small they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in paint," explains Sargent.
Sargent's team then tuned the tiny nanocrystals to catch light at very long wavelengths. The result is a sprayable infrared detector.
"Existing technology has given us solution-processible, light-sensitive materials that have made large, low-cost solar cells, displays, and sensors possible, but these materials have so far only worked in the visible light spectrum," Sargent said.
The discovery may help in the quest for cheaper, more efficient renewable energy resources. Specifically, it could help drive up the efficiencies of current polymer-based solar cells which hold the potential to be manufactured at a lower cost than current crystalline silicon cells but have so far been unable to match crystalline power conversion efficiencies.
"Companies have already been formed which have discovered how to make roll-to-roll, large area, plastic photovoltaics," Sargent said. "They face the challenge of low efficiencies in harvesting the sun's power. Our work has the potential to improve these efficiencies considerably.
Sargent expects their research breakthrough could see commercial implementation within 3 to 5 years.
Flexible, roller-processed solar cells have the potential to harness the sun's power, but efficiency, flexibility and cost are going to determine how that potential becomes practice, said Josh Wolfe, Managing Partner and nanotechnology venture capital investor at Lux Capital in Manhattan.
(Excerpt) Read more at renewableenergyaccess.com ...
Quick! Lets knock down all the forests and spread this stuff out so we can save the environment with solar power.
Full spectrum? Way cool! The only problem might be electrocuting yourself while fixing the roof (grin).
No more recharging cell phones.
One problem is efficiency. The energy produced from photovoltaic energy available for heating would be les that the amount of energy from the sun heating your house directly. There is only so much energy available per square inch irradiated.
What this technology could add, provided it is transparent in the visible, is be coupled in a layered system so one layer captures IR and passes the visible light to the visible sensitive solar cell so more energy can be captured per square area than one type of cell by itself. Vice versa if the visible cell is transparent in the IR.
No need. The world has LOTS of desert area that will work just fine for the purpose. A tiny fraction of the available area will do the job for the entire world.
Heating can be done more efficiently by allowing the sunlight in without converting it first to electricity. Cooling and running appliances requires conversion.
More likely is reducing the need for throwaway batteries. This is a real mess. Any way to run portable gadgets on alcohol or solar power is desirable. I have a solar powered Citizen watch that supposedly will run for decades with a battery change.
Iraq, Iran, any terrorist loving place sounds good to me!
If Riyadh, Mecca and Medina were nuked, and then the Saudi Peninsula were blanketed with photovoltaic cells, it would provide enough electricity for the entire planet.
Yeah, but at 6% efficiency, you will have to have a collector bigger than your house or PDA. It will take more than 5 years to get that efficiency up to the 35% that nukes runs at currently. Practical solar PV will always be just around the corner, just like practical fusion power.
Imagine the paint on your car powering your car's air conditioner while you are in the store and your engine is off.
Still, I have to ask, what do you do when the sun don't shine? Where I live, now, I don't think we've seen a peek of sunshine for what seems to be going on weeks. We've had plenty of snow and ice and rain in the meantime. I sure wouldn't want to be dependent on a solar array, no matter how efficient, for my main energy source during this time. People have had a hard enough time dealing with electricity outages of a day or two. Stretch that out to a few weeks and you're probably looking at significant numbers of fatalities.
You're right. To get maximum efficiency, we need to put the collectors on the Sun.
Hey, I don't care how efficient your collection system is, you're still limited by the intensity of the source input, and it's availability. Solar energy is diffuse (low intensity) and intermittent. That means big headaches if it's the thing you rely on for your primary energy.
No need. The world has LOTS of desert area that will work just fine for the purpose. A tiny fraction of the available area will do the job for the entire world.
You can't be series! You're advocating blocking huge areas of the desert floor from getting sunlight? What will happen to all the happy little desert reptiles, insects, and endangered desert microbes living in the sand? Their demise would represent an environmental catastrophy of epic proportions! How heartless of you!
Save the scorpions! Save the sandworms! Save the cactii!
Yup--quite true!
"Save the scorpions! Save the sandworms! Save the cactii!"
Hmmmm---do you have Earth confused with a place called Arrakis??
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