More environmentally friendly and cheaper solar cells could be manufactured using cobalt, new research as found. Researchers from the University of Basel have developed a copper-based, dye-sensitized solar cell where the expensive (and relatively rare) element iodine has been replaced by the much more common element cobalt. The new Cu-Co … [continued]
University of Utah metallurgical engineers Prashant Sarswat and Michael Free used an old office microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor named CZTS that is made from cheaper, less toxic materials than other semiconductors and holds promise for more efficient solar power cells and lighting by LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, as well as sensors for medical tests and systems to convert waste heat to electricity.
Image Credit: Lee J. Siegel, University of Utah
Another fun solar science story, this one via the University of Utah: University of Utah metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient photovoltaic solar cells and … [continued]
By controlling how the ‘mixing’ occurs between acceptor and donor layers (solar cell domains) in polymer-based solar cells, efficiency could be greatly boosted, says new research from a team that includes physicists from North Carolina State University. This new research has given some insight into the most inner workings … [continued]
