Green Energy
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Solar cell is an electrical device which converts the light energy directly into electricity utilizing photovoltaic effect. It is also defined as the form of photoelectric cell having electrical characteristics like current, voltage and resistance. There...
- Researchers Create Efficient, Recyclable Solar Cells From Trees
Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology‘s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE), in collaboration with Purdue University have unveiled a new efficient, recyclable organic solar cell made from trees—or, more specifically, from...
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Article originally published on dailymail in July 20th 2015. Nanowire technology may allow new types of hydrogen fuel cell for vehiclesScientists created a grid of tiny wires of gallium phosphide to split waterThis harnessed the sun's energy...
- Scientists Build The First All-carbon Solar Cell
article published in www.sciencedaily.com, October 31st 2012 Stanford University scientists have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a promising alternative to the expensive materials used in photovoltaic devices today.The results...
- Making 'renewable' Viable: New Technology For Grid-level Electrical Energy Storage Developed
Article published on http://www.sciencedaily.com, June 11th 2012 In the aftermath of the recent United Nations Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, the focus of many industrialized nations is beginning to shift toward planning for a sustainable...
Green Energy
Researchers Create 'Nanoflowers' for Energy Storage, Solar Cells
Article published on www.sciencedaily.com October 11, 2012
Researchers from North Carolina State University have created flower-like structures out of germanium sulfide (GeS) -- a semiconductor material -- that have extremely thin petals with an enormous surface area. The GeS flower holds promise for next-generation energy storage devices and solar cells.
"Creating these GeS nanoflowers is exciting because it gives us a huge surface area in a small amount of space," says Dr. Linyou Cao, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. "This could significantly increase the capacity of lithium-ion batteries, for instance, since the thinner structure with larger surface area can hold more lithium ions. By the same token, this GeS flower structure could lead to increased capacity for supercapacitors, which are also used for energy storage."
To create the flower structures, researchers first heat GeS powder in a furnace until it begins to vaporize. The vapor is then blown into a cooler region of the furnace, where the GeS settles out of the air into a layered sheet that is only 20 to 30 nanometers thick, and up to 100 micrometers long. As additional layers are added, the sheets branch out from one another, creating a floral pattern similar to a marigold or carnation.
"To get this structure, it is very important to control the flow of the GeS vapor," Cao says, "so that it has time to spread out in layers, rather than aggregating into clumps."
GeS is similar to materials such as graphite, which settle into neat layers or sheets. However, GeS is very different from graphite in that its atomic structure makes it very good at absorbing solar energy and converting it into useable power. This makes it attractive for use in solar cells, particularly since GeS is relatively inexpensive and non-toxic. Many of the materials currently used in solar cells are both expensive and extremely toxic.
The paper, "Role of Boundary Layer Diffusion in Vapor Deposition Growth of Chalcogenide Nanosheets: The Case of GeS," is published online in the journal ACS Nano. The paper was co-authored by Cao; Dr. Chun Li, a former postdoctoral researcher at NC State, now a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; Liang Huang, a former visiting Ph.D. student at NC State; Gayatri Pongur Snigdha, a former undergraduate student at NC State; and Yifei Yu, a Ph.D. student at NC State. The work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office.
Find more about innovation on PV sector at www.ciel-et-terre.net/floating-solar-system/
Find more about innovation on PV sector at www.ciel-et-terre.net/floating-solar-system/
- How Do Solar Cells Work?
Solar cell is an electrical device which converts the light energy directly into electricity utilizing photovoltaic effect. It is also defined as the form of photoelectric cell having electrical characteristics like current, voltage and resistance. There...
- Researchers Create Efficient, Recyclable Solar Cells From Trees
Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology‘s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE), in collaboration with Purdue University have unveiled a new efficient, recyclable organic solar cell made from trees—or, more specifically, from...
- Could We Finally Power Cars With Solar Panels?
Article originally published on dailymail in July 20th 2015. Nanowire technology may allow new types of hydrogen fuel cell for vehiclesScientists created a grid of tiny wires of gallium phosphide to split waterThis harnessed the sun's energy...
- Scientists Build The First All-carbon Solar Cell
article published in www.sciencedaily.com, October 31st 2012 Stanford University scientists have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a promising alternative to the expensive materials used in photovoltaic devices today.The results...
- Making 'renewable' Viable: New Technology For Grid-level Electrical Energy Storage Developed
Article published on http://www.sciencedaily.com, June 11th 2012 In the aftermath of the recent United Nations Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, the focus of many industrialized nations is beginning to shift toward planning for a sustainable...