Nanotechnology improves solar cell efficiency
Hybrid semiconductor and plastic solar cell. The tiny solar cell assemblies were created using nanoscale rods of cadmium selenide and a polymer of P3HT. Such cells will be cheaper and easier to make than their semiconductor counterparts.
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Photo and excerpt:
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Scientists have long struggled to create a new kind of solar cell, one made of plastic that would be lightweight, flexible, and more efficient than the more familiar silicon solar cells.
And now they’re getting closer. Earth & Sky spoke with David Carroll of Wake Forest University about his recent success using nanotechnology to improve the efficiency of plastic solar cells. He’s developed a method to embed nano–sized balls of carbon known as “fullerenes” into light–absorbing plastic.
David Carroll: They look like a little soccer ball. They’re made from carbon and they’re less than a nanometer across and you disperse them in the plastic and then you manipulate them around as we have done.
The fullerenes increase the efficiency of the plastic solar cell. Dr. Carroll explained that the goal is to make the plastic absorb a wider range of the sun’s energy.
David Carroll: Silicon can absorb the higher energy photons, but plastics don’t do as well. And so what you have to do is you have to put something in the plastic to help do the absorption of the photon, like the fullerenes are doing, but you want to kind of capture more of the high energy and low energy photons. What we say is that we’re trying to increase the spectral overlap with the sun.
In other words, the new plastic solar cells can absorb more of the colors of the rainbow, so they’re more efficient.
Thanks today to the National Science Foundation.
Our thanks to:
Dr. David Carroll
Associate Professor
Department of Physics Wake Forest University Winston–Salem
Let’s say nanotechnolgy with its brand new particles can make cheap solar cells that help solve the problems of global warming. well what about when those solar cells are oneday put in our landfills or whatever. we don’t know how they will pollute our world. It could be worse than the damage of global warming.
Ronda, you’re right. It’s daunting.
On the other hand, there are 6.6 billion people on Earth, and counting. We have to do something.
Many thanks,
Deborah
If history has taught us one thing, its that previous generations leave new problems for future generations to solve, all in the name of progress.
I thought I read an article that mentioned most of the Carbon used in nanotube technology could be recycled… hopefully that is the case.
Mark:
If you check the multititude of Earth & Sky’s radio shows about nanotechology, there’s frequently a sentence like “nanotechnology creates NEW MATERIALS NOT FOUND IN NATURE. It’s not just regular carbon. and there are thousands of other new substances that nanotechnology makes that don’t use the element carbon at all. Is Nature going to know how to break down that stuff? No one ever thinks about what to do with waste until they’re confronted with their waste.