All posts tagged: Solar Cells

Scientists achieve ‘impossible’ solar efficiency in renewables breakthrough

Scientists achieve ‘impossible’ solar efficiency in renewables breakthrough

Published by Sam Flores

Researchers in Japan have developed a new material that allows solar cells to generate an amount of energy from sunlight that was previously thought impossible. The discovery, made by a team at Kyushu University, involves a special “spin-flip” emitter that can harvest energy from the Sun that is typically lost as heat. The breakthrough overcomes the long-standing limit of conventional solar cells to achieve an energy conversion efficiency of 130 per cent – opening up new possibilities for ultra-efficient solar panels. With conventional solar cells, a single particle of light called a photon can generate one energy carrier, known as an exciton. Until now, solar cell technology has only been able to harvest energy from about one-third of the available sunlight due to higher-energy photons, like blue light, being lost as heat. Photovoltaic power solar panels in El Bonillo, Albacete province, Spain on 2 December, 2015 (Getty Images) The researchers used a process called singlet fission to split the excitons from the higher-energy photons into two lower-energy excitons – theoretically doubling the energy. “We have …

New gold nanospheres capture nearly the full spectrum of solar energy

New gold nanospheres capture nearly the full spectrum of solar energy

Published by Jenni Sidey

Sunlight carries more energy than most solar devices can catch. That gap matters as heat waves grow worse. It also matters as grids strain under rising demand. A team working at the KU R&D Center at Korea University says a new coating could help. In ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, researchers Jaewon Lee, Seungwoo Lee and Kyung Hun Rho from the KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology at Korea University, report a gold-based material that absorbs nearly the full range of sunlight. They built it from tiny gold nanospheres that self-assemble into microscale balls. The team calls the spheres “supraballs.” The idea targets a common weakness in today’s light-harvesting materials. Many systems collect visible light well. They struggle more with near-infrared light, which makes up a large share of the solar spectrum. The researchers designed supraballs to pull in both. How supraballs change what gold can absorb A single gold nanoparticle tends to absorb within a narrow band. Much of its strongest response sits in visible wavelengths. In the new work, the scientists …

Scientists use semiconductors and sunlight to convert waste carbon dioxide into fuel

Scientists use semiconductors and sunlight to convert waste carbon dioxide into fuel

Published by Jenni Sidey

In labs focused on clean energy, a quiet shift is underway. Instead of treating carbon dioxide as a dead-end waste gas, researchers want to turn it into a useful starting point. A new study from Vrije Universiteit Brussel describes progress toward solar fuel systems that can convert sunlight into chemical energy more efficiently, while lasting longer under real operating conditions. The work centers on semiconductors, materials that can absorb light and help drive chemical reactions. In solar fuel devices, these materials sit at the heart of the system. They catch sunlight, create electrical charges, and push those charges toward electrodes where chemistry happens. If any step falters, the whole promise of solar fuels fades. The researchers report they learned how to make these semiconductor-based systems both sturdier and stronger. They tracked how energy inside the material connects with electrodes, how charges cross key boundaries, and which factors most affect long-term stability. They also found that adding special catalysts can raise performance and extend system lifetime. Top row: surface scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of CBS, …