Tag Archives: nanotech
Researchers: Nanoscale Coating Improves Solar Efficiency
Scientists from the Aalto University offer yet another way of using nanostructures to improve solar cell efficiency. A new nanoscale coating technique can significantly reduce the losses of solar radiation that occur due to reflection. The new cost-effective photovoltaic material is currently being developed under a research program called “Photonics and Modern Imaging Techniques.” The [...]
Will Nanocrystals Power Electric Cars?
It is well known that one of the main problems with modern electric cars is the problem of energy storage. New better batteries are required to increase the range of electric cars and make them more attractive commercially. A new nanomaterial for lithium ion batteries developed in the labs of chemists at ETH Zurich and [...]
Nanowires: Making Quantum Dot Solar Cells Better
While potentially much more efficient, than conventional photovoltaic systems, quantum dot solar cells are still at a pre-commercialization stage. In a new paper, to be published in the journal Advanced Materials, researchers propose to improve quantum dot solar cell design with nanowires. To put it simply, quantum dot is a portion of matter that has [...]
The Era of Nanoscale Chip Wiring
This TEM image taken at Applied Materials’ Maydan Technology Center shows a series of 20nm-wide trenches in cross section. These tiny structures – about 1/5000th of the diameter of an average human hair – are similar to the interconnects used to wire the billions of transistors in next-generation microchips. You can see that each trench [...]
UConn Professor Uses Nanotech for 70% Efficient Solar Cell
While current solar energy technology, which is usually based on semiconductor technology made of silicon or gallium oxide functions at 20 percent efficiency on the high end, a University of Connecticut professor is working on a new technology that could harvest 70 percent of the sun’s electromagnetic radiation. The technology uses nanosized antennas. Working with [...]
Graphene: The Next Big Thing in PV?
Graphene is proving to be time and again one of the most promising new substances ever developed. In the latest application, researchers at MIT are developing photovoltaic (PV) devices using layers of graphene, the atom-thick layer of carbon that won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010, coated with nanowires. MIT published its research in [...]
Rice University Scientists Create ‘Solar Steam’
In a new twist to the quest to harness the power of the sun, Rice University scientists are using sun power to produce steam from icy cold water. The solar steam method, from Rice’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics, uses light-capturing nanoparticles to convert the sunlight into heat. The inventors of solar steam see the first use [...]
Nanosolar Completes Largest Nano PV Project To Date
Nanosolar just announced that it’s completed it’s largest project to date, a 10.63 megawatt project in Alfarrasi, a town in Valencia, Spain. The U.S.-based PV manufacturer is among the first to commercialize printable photovoltaics (PV) and this is among the largest, if not the largest nanoparticle-printed array in the world. The project in Spain was [...]
Graphene That Redefines Electric Current
A new joint innovation by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Cambridge could pave the way for redefining the ampere in terms of fundamental constants of physics. The world’s first graphene single-electron pump (SEP), described in Nature Nanotechnology, provides the speed of electron flow needed to create a new standard for electrical current [...]