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 ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 27, 2012 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast feature

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 ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 12 | with audio podcast feature

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 ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jun 03, 2011 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast feature

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 ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 07, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (26) | comments 13 | with audio podcast feature

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 ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Oct 30, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 1 feature

'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

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

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 company’s technology ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 15, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

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.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Nov 29, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

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) ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jul 20, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (19) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

'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

created Jul 04, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

'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 ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 06, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New inexpensive way to grow silicon microwires for sensors, batteries and solar cells

Microwires made of silicon -- tiny wires with a thickness comparable to a human hair — have a wide range of possible uses, including the production of solar cells that can harvest much more sunlight for ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 04, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

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

created Jan 06, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (16) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists develop method for detecting microRNA from living cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new electronic method for detecting microRNA isolated from living cells. MicroRNAs are a class of small biomolecules that control ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Oct 26, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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

created Sep 27, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (46) | comments 3 | with audio podcast