PV Research:Does this new mechanism to capture sunlight and convert it to energy rival the conventional methods currently being deployed? See what the researchers have to say--
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found a process that claims to be much more efficient than conventional photo-conduction. This study has been published in the journal ACS Nano states the approach could make solar energy harvesting and opto-electronic devices much better.
"We hypothesized that, when plasmons are excited to a high energy state, we should be able to harvest the electrons out of the material. If we could do that, we could use them for molecular electronics device applications, such as circuit components or solar energy extraction. In our measurements, compared to conventional photo-excitation, we saw increases of three to 10 times in the efficiency of our process. And we didn't even optimize the system. In principle you can envision huge increases in efficiency." Stated Dawn Bonnell, Penn's vice provost for research and Trustee Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science--and lead in the research -- reference.
This technology can be applied as paint on your laptop--that may act as a solar cell to provide power using only sunlight. It could also improve communication devices by making their molecular circuits more efficient.
Are you a believer in this technology?
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