Study: Coating hikes solar cell function
Published: Feb. 26, 2008 at 10:44 AM
EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have developed an anode coating strategy that significantly enhances the efficiency of solar energy power conversion.
Northwestern University researchers noted the energy from sunlight falling on only 9 percent of California's Mojave Desert could power the entire United States. The problem is efficiently harvesting that power since current solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications.
But the Northwestern scientists said their study, focusing on "engineering" organic material-electrode interfaces in bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells, might solve the problem.
The scientists said their findings promise to move researchers and developers worldwide closer to the goal of producing cheaper, more "manufacturable" and more easily implemented solar cells. Such technology, they said, would greatly reduce dependence on burning fossil fuels for electricity production as well as reduce the combustion product: carbon dioxide, a global warming greenhouse gas.
The study that included professors Tobin Marks and Robert Chang, researcher Bruce Buchholz and graduate students Michael Irwin and Alexander Hains appears in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Northwestern University researchers noted the energy from sunlight falling on only 9 percent of California's Mojave Desert could power the entire United States. The problem is efficiently harvesting that power since current solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications.
But the Northwestern scientists said their study, focusing on "engineering" organic material-electrode interfaces in bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells, might solve the problem.
The scientists said their findings promise to move researchers and developers worldwide closer to the goal of producing cheaper, more "manufacturable" and more easily implemented solar cells. Such technology, they said, would greatly reduce dependence on burning fossil fuels for electricity production as well as reduce the combustion product: carbon dioxide, a global warming greenhouse gas.
The study that included professors Tobin Marks and Robert Chang, researcher Bruce Buchholz and graduate students Michael Irwin and Alexander Hains appears in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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In this image from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, Cyclone Nargis is pictured when it was a Category one hurricane located 370 miles west of Yangon, Myanmar on May 1, 2008. Tropical Cyclone Nargis flooded the region on May 4, 2008. The death toll from the cyclone and its aftermath is feared to hit or exceed 100,000 lives. (UPI Photo/NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team)
NASA satellite images show Tropical Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar
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