(Phys.org)—Researchers have turned to cicada wings to design surfaces with highly antireflective properties, which have potential applications for solar cells, stealth surfaces, antifogging materials, and other optical ...
A silicon solar cell harvests the energy of the sun as light travels down through light-absorbent silicon. To reduce weight and cost, solar cells are thin, and while silicon absorbs visible light well, it captures less than ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 19, 2017
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22
In the search for alternatives to silicon-based solar cells, A*STAR researchers are investigating a new material that is cheaper and easier to make, and could lead to better performing solar cells.
Energy & Green Tech
Oct 19, 2017
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12
An international scientific collaboration has successfully integrated a sub-micron thin, nanophotonic silicon film into a crystalline solar cell for the first time.
Energy & Green Tech
Aug 30, 2017
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21
Collaboration between researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ...
Energy & Green Tech
Aug 29, 2017
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1070
Photovoltaic conversion is regarded as the ultimate solution to the growing demand for energy, yet traditional silicon-based solar cells are expensive to produce, and production itself involves intensive energy consumption. ...
Condensed Matter
Aug 29, 2017
1
65
To determine how efficient new solar cells convert sunlight into electricity, small sample cells are tested under ideal conditions. However, the reported efficiency is not very representative of the actual annual yield when ...
Energy & Green Tech
Aug 22, 2017
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343
One of the challenges in making new electronic devices is the chemistry required to assemble the layers that make up the device. In this research, a new synthetic chemistry approach produces ultra-small materials that resemble ...
Polymers
Aug 4, 2017
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2
Organic solar cells are flexible, transparent and lightweight, and can be manufactured in arbitrary shapes or colors. Thus, they are suitable for a variety of applications that cannot be realized with conventional silicon ...
Energy & Green Tech
Aug 3, 2017
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16
In recent years, perovskites have taken the solar cell industry by storm. They are cheap, easy to produce and very flexible in their applications. Their efficiency at converting light into electricity has grown faster than ...
Materials Science
Jul 26, 2017
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107
