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New coating is virtual black hole for reflections
March 05, 2007Nonreflecting material may help solar cells catch more of the sun's rays
Researchers have created an anti-reflective coating that allows light to travel through it, but lets almost none bounce off its surface. At least 10 times more effective than the coating on sunglasses or computer monitors, the material, which is made of silica nanorods, may be used to channel light into solar cells or allow more photons to surge through the surface of a light-emitting diode (LED).
Publishing in the March 1, 2007, Nature Photonics, lead author Jong Kyu Kim and a team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., reveal how they crafted the coating, which reflects almost as little light as do molecules of air.
Guided by National Science Foundation-supported electrical engineer Fred Schubert, the researchers developed a process based on an already common method for depositing layers of silica, the building block of quartz, onto computer chips and other surfaces.
The method grows ranks of nanoscale rods that lie at the same angle. That degree of the angle is determined by temperature. Under a microscope, the films look like tiny slices of shag carpet.
By laying down multiple layers, each at a different angle, the researchers created thin films that are uniquely capable of controlling light. With the right layers in the right configuration, the researchers believe they can even create a film that will reflect no light at all.
One critical application for the material is in the development of next-generation solar cells. By preventing reflections, the coating would allow more light, and more wavelengths of light, to transmit through the protective finish on a solar cell surface and into the cell itself. Engineers may be able to use such a technique to boost the amount of energy a cell can collect, bypassing current efficiency limits.
Another application would involve coating LEDs to eliminate reflections that cut down the amount of light the LED can emit. The researchers hope the efficiency gains could allow the light sources to compete more effectively with fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. So, they will next focus their attention on solid state lighting.
National Science Foundation
Guided by National Science Foundation-supported electrical engineer Fred Schubert, the researchers developed a process based on an already common method for depositing layers of silica, the building block of quartz, onto computer chips and other surfaces.
The method grows ranks of nanoscale rods that lie at the same angle. That degree of the angle is determined by temperature. Under a microscope, the films look like tiny slices of shag carpet.
By laying down multiple layers, each at a different angle, the researchers created thin films that are uniquely capable of controlling light. With the right layers in the right configuration, the researchers believe they can even create a film that will reflect no light at all.
One critical application for the material is in the development of next-generation solar cells. By preventing reflections, the coating would allow more light, and more wavelengths of light, to transmit through the protective finish on a solar cell surface and into the cell itself. Engineers may be able to use such a technique to boost the amount of energy a cell can collect, bypassing current efficiency limits.
Another application would involve coating LEDs to eliminate reflections that cut down the amount of light the LED can emit. The researchers hope the efficiency gains could allow the light sources to compete more effectively with fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. So, they will next focus their attention on solid state lighting.
National Science Foundation
Solar Cell Current Events and Solar Cell News RSSNanometric butterfly wings created
A team of researchers from the State University of Pennsylvania (USA) and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) have developed a technique to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, on a nano scale. The resulting biomaterial could be used to make optically active structures, such as optical diffusers for solar panels.
Looking deeply into polymer solar cells
Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Ulm have made the first high-resolution 3D images of the inside of a polymer solar cell.
Carbon nanotubes could make efficient solar cells
Using a carbon nanotube instead of traditional silicon, Cornell researchers have created the basic elements of a solar cell that hopefully will lead to much more efficient ways of converting light to electricity than now used in calculators and on rooftops.
Bringing solar power to the masses
On a 104-degree Friday in July when sunlight bathed The University of Arizona campus, doctoral student Dio Placencia sat before a noisy vacuum chamber in the Chemical Sciences Building trying to advance the renewable energy revolution.
Plastics that convert light to electricity could have a big impact
Researchers the world over are striving to develop organic solar cells that can be produced easily and inexpensively as thin films that could be widely used to generate electricity.
NIST scientists study how to stack the deck for organic solar power
A new class of economically viable solar power cells-cheap, flexible and easy to make-has come a step closer to reality as a result of recent work* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have deepened their understanding of the complex organic films at the heart of the devices.
Nanopillars Promise Cheap, Efficient, Flexible Solar Cells
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have demonstrated a way to fabricate efficient solar cells from low-cost and flexible materials.
Low-cost solution processing method developed for CIGS-based solar cells
Though the solar industry today predominately produces solar panels made from crystalline silicon, they remain relatively expensive to make.
Flexible Solar Strips Light Up Campus Bus Shelter
There won't be anymore waiting in the dark at this campus bus shelter. New flexible solar cell technology developed by a group of engineering researchers at McMaster University has been installed to power lighting for night-time transit users.
Lasers are making solar cells competitive
Solar electricity has a future: It is renewable and available in unlimited quantities, and it does not produce any gases detrimental to the climate.
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