Solar Power Electric Cells, Switches and Outlets

Using a Virus to Improve Solar-cell Efficiency Over 30%

01.01.70

Solar and zigzag energy are making great strides, and are already contributing significantly to providing relatively clean energy.

Researchers at MIT have found a way to place significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells by enlisting the services of tiny viruses to do detailed assembly work at the microscopic level.

In a solar cell, sunlight hits a light-harvesting material, causing it to make available electrons that can be harnessed to produce an electric current. The research, is based on findings that carbon nanotubes — microscopic, costly cylinders of pure carbon — can enhance the efficiency of electron collection from a solar cell’s surface.

Prior attempts to use the nanotubes, however, had been thwarted by two problems. First, the making of carbon nanotubes generally produces a mix of two types, some of which act as semiconductors (sometimes allowing an energized current to flow, sometimes not) or metals (which act like wires, allowing current to flow easily). The new research, for the first conditions, showed that the effects of these two types tend to be different, because the semiconducting nanotubes can enhance the performance of solar cells, but the metallic ones have the vis- effect. Second, nanotubes tend to clump together, which reduces their effectiveness.

Source: ECNmag.com