News tagged with silicon cells
Scientists investigate mystery of telephone cord buckles
(PhysOrg.com) -- Ranging in thickness from a few nanometers to several micrometers, thin films and coatings play a role in a wide variety of applications. The reflective metal layer on a mirror, the coatings ...
Millions of molecules screened in search for the ideal organic solar cell material
(PhysOrg.com) -- Currently, the cost of electricity from commercial silicon solar cells is about 10 times higher than the cost of utility-scale electricity. In order to make solar cells cost-competitive with ...
Study raises questions on what causes silicon solar cell degradation
(PhysOrg.com) -- After several hours of exposure to sunlight, silicon solar cells experience light-induced degradation, which can decrease their efficiency by up to 10%. In a new study, scientists have attempted ...
Silicon nanohole solar cells aim to make photovoltaics cost-competitive
(PhysOrg.com) -- Due to the increasing demand for renewable energy sources, photovoltaic solar cells have advanced significantly over the past decade. Since 2002, photovoltaic production worldwide has been ...
'Tunable' metal nanostructures for fuel cells, batteries and solar energy
(PhysOrg.com) -- For catalysts in fuel cells and electrodes in batteries, engineers would like to manufacture metal films that are porous, to make more surface area available for chemical reactions, and highly ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 03, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
3
|
Porphyrin Dimers Increase Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- Porphyrins are most commonly thought of as the pigment in red blood cells, but now scientists have found that porphyrins can also be used to increase the efficiency of an inexpensive type ...
Cost-cutting drives solar cell process at Twin Creeks
(PhysOrg.com) -- A San Jose, California, startup company, Twin Creeks Technologies, says it has figured out a way to substantially cut the cost of making silicon solar cells. The companys technology ...
Researchers create the first artificial neural network out of DNA
Artificial intelligence has been the inspiration for countless books and movies, as well as the aspiration of countless scientists and engineers. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) ...
Jul 20, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (19) |
13
|
Solar cells thinner than wavelengths of light hold huge power potential
(PhysOrg.com) -- Ultra-thin solar cells can absorb sunlight more efficiently than the thicker, more expensive-to-make silicon cells used today, because light behaves differently at scales around a nanometer, ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Sep 27, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (46) |
3
|
'Cling-film' solar cells could lead to advance in renewable energy
(PhysOrg.com) -- A scientific advance in renewable energy which promises a revolution in the ease and cost of using solar cells, has been announced today. A new study shows that even when using very simple ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jul 04, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (10) |
11
|
Making a light-harvesting antenna from scratch
(PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes when people talk about solar energy, they tacitly assume that we're stuck with some version of the silicon solar cell and its technical and cost limitations. Not so.
Nov 29, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (15) |
1
|
Next-generation nanoelectronics: A decade of progress, coming advances
Traditional silicon-based integrated circuits are found in many applications, from large data servers to cars to cell phones. Their widespread integration is due in part to the semiconductor industry's ability to continue ...
May 03, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
1
|
'Swiss cheese' design enables thin film silicon solar cells with potential for higher efficiencies
A bold new design for thin film solar cells that requires significantly less silicon and may boost their efficiency is the result of an industry/academia collaboration between Oerlikon Solar ...
May 06, 2011 |
5 / 5 (4) |
0
|
Graphene electrodes for organic solar cells
A promising approach for making solar cells that are inexpensive, lightweight and flexible is to use organic (that is, carbon-containing) compounds instead of expensive, highly purified silicon. But one stubborn ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jan 06, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (16) |
4
|
Trapping Sunlight with Silicon Nanowires
(PhysOrg.com) -- Berkeley Lab researchers have found a better way to trap light in photovoltaic cells through the use of vertical arrays of silicon nanowires. This could substantially cut the costs of solar ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Mar 03, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (28) |
2
|