(Press-News.org) Imagine a solar panel more efficient than today's best solar panels, but using 10 000 times less material. This is what EPFL researchers expect given recent findings on these tiny filaments called nanowires. Solar technology integrating nanowires could capture large quantities of light and produce energy with incredible efficiency at a much lower cost. This technology is possibly the future for powering microchips and the basis for a new generation of solar panels.
Despite their size, nanowires have tremendous potential for energy production. "These nanowires capture much more light than expected," says Anna Fontcuberta i Morral about her research, published on 24 March 2013 in Nature Photonics.
Nanowires are extremely tiny filaments–in this case able to capture light–with a diameter that measures tens to hundreds of nanometers, where a nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter. These miniscule wires are up to 1000 times smaller than the diameter of human hair, or comparable in diameter to the size of viruses.
When equipped with the right electronic properties, the nanowire becomes a tiny solar cell, transforming sunlight into electric current. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral and her team built a nanowire solar cell out of gallium arsenide, a material which is better at converting light into power than silicon. They found that it actually collects more light than the usual flat solar cell–up to 12 times more–and more light means more energy.
The nanowire standing vertically essentially acts like a very efficient light funnel. Even though the nanowire is only a few hundred nanometers in diameter, it absorbs light as though it were 12 times bigger. In other words, it has a greater field of vision than expected.
Fontcuberta's prototype is already almost 10% more efficient at transforming light into power than allowed, in theory, for conventional single material solar panels. Furthermore, optimizing the dimensions of the nanowire, improving the quality of the gallium arsenide and using better electrical contacts to extract the current could increase the prototype's efficiency.
Arrays of nanowire solar cells offer new prospects for energy production. This study suggests that an array of nanowires may attain 33% efficiency, in practice, whereas commercial (flat) solar panels are now only up to 20% efficient. Also, arrays of nanowires would use at least 10 000 times less gallium arsenide, allowing for industrial use of this costly material. Translating this into dollars for gallium arsenide, the cost would only be $10 per square meter instead of $100 000.
Free to the engineer's imagination to mount these nanowires onto a variety of substrate panels, be it lightweight, flexible or designed to withstand the harshest of conditions. In a world where energy consumption is on the rise, these nanowires may one day power everything from your favorite gadget to space missions to Mars.
INFORMATION: END
Some species of birds reproduce not by rearing their own young, but by handing that task on to adults of other species. Known as brood parasitism, this habit has been most thoroughly researched in the cuckoo. Previous research has found, however, that the nests of martins and swallows in Europe are rarely parasitized by cuckoos. A new study by Wen Liang from the Hainan Normal University in China and his colleagues suggests that swallows build their nests close to humans to reduce their susceptibility to brood parasitism. The findings are published in Springer's journal ...
Shaken, not stirred, is the essence of new research that's showing promise in creating the chemical reactions necessary for industries such as pharmaceutical companies, but eliminating the resulting waste from traditional methods. James Mack, a University of Cincinnati associate professor of chemistry, will present this research into greener chemistry on April 9, at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.
Instead of using solutions to create chemical reactions needed to manufacture products such as detergents, plastics and pharmaceuticals, ...
An analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decisions suggests "historical amnesia" regarding the growing power of speech rights for corporations in electronic media, versus the First Amendment rights of individuals. Jeff Blevins, associate professor and head of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Journalism, will present his research on Tuesday, April 9, at the 58th annual convention of the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas.
Blevins' presentation, titled "Historical Amnesia in First Amendment Jurisprudence on Corporate Power and Electronic Media," suggests ...
Scientists have described small genetic changes that enable the H5N1 bird flu virus to replicate more easily in the noses of mammals.
So far there have only been isolated cases of bird flu in humans, and no widespread transmission as the H5N1 virus can't replicate efficiently in the nose. The new study, using weakened viruses in the lab, supports the conclusions of controversial research published in 2012 which demonstrated that just a few genetic mutations could enable bird flu to spread between ferrets, which are used to model flu infection in humans.
Researchers ...
London (08 April 2013). New research on patients' experiences of health services and how these relate to their expectations and satisfaction, published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, reveals that older people have higher expectations of their care and that they believe that their expectations are being met. The research questions prevailing stereotypes that characterise older patients as being satisfied with their care because their expectations are lower.
Patients visiting their GP and hospital outpatient departments were surveyed before and after their ...
Contact: Ken Chawkin
kchawkin@mum.edu
641-470-1314
Maharishi University of Management
Transcendental Meditation significantly reduces posttraumatic stress in African refugees
New study reports immediate and dramatic reductions to a non-symptomatic level after 30 days of TM practice remaining low at endpoint of 135 days
VIDEO:
This video was taken of Esperance Ndozi, one of the Congolese refugees in the study. She was interviewed before learning the Transcendental ...
Mobile phone batteries that last longer, car batteries that enable you to drive further, storage that accumulates a lot of energy from wind and solar generators: many applications require better batteries. The research essentially focuses on three aspects here: researchers want to increase the energy density – in other words store more energy in a smaller battery. They are also looking to improve the discharging and charging speed by changing and controlling the material, shape and size of the electrochemically active particles and the structure of the battery electrodes ...
VIDEO:
Research from Nathalie Bérubé, Ph.D., Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Lawson Health Research Institute, found that the loss of the gene ATRX increases DNA damage locally in...
Click here for more information.
Research from Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute sheds new light on a gene called ATRX and its function in the brain and pituitary. Children born with ATRX syndrome have cognitive defects and developmental ...
This press release is available in Spanish.
A study led by the Membrane Nanomechanics group of the Biophysics Unit of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has made it possible to characterise the functioning of a protein responsible for cell membrane splitting. The results of the study, published in the prestigious journal Science, make it possible to see the basic mechanisms of cell life from a fresh perspective, like the fusion and splitting of cell membranes. What is more, the methodology developed will allow various neuromuscular disorders to be diagnosed.
Cells ...
The incidence of head and neck cancer caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) has tripled since the 1970s and continues to grow; better therapy is needed;
This study discovered a new mechanism by which HPV causes head and neck cancer, and the researchers designed a drug that blocks the mechanism;
The findings could lead to a safer, more effective therapy for HPV-caused cancer.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have discovered a new mechanism by which the human papilloma virus (HPV) causes head and neck cancer, and they have designed a drug to block that mechanism. ...
