adminResearchers demonstrate in a new study the precise mechanism by which sunlight generates electrical charge within cutting-edge solar cell film, yielding potential benefits for solar power industry.
Researchers have successfully demonstrated how several of the problems impeding the practical development of the so-called ‘ultimate’ battery could be overcome.
Researchers have demonstrated a new process for rapidly fabricating complex three-dimensional nanostructures from a variety of materials, including metals. The new technique uses nanoelectrospray to provide a continuous supply of liquid precursor, which can include metal ions that are converted to high-purity metal by a focused electron beam.
CIGSe solar cells are made of a thin chalcopyrite layer consisting of copper, indium, gallium and selenium and can reach high efficiencies. Since indium is becoming scarce and expensive, it is interesting to reduce the active CIGSe layer, which however decreases the efficiency quite strongly. Now, scientists have produced high quality ultrathin CIGSe layers and increased their efficiency by an array of tiny nanoparticles between the back contact and the active layer.
Physicists have developed a method to synthesize a unique and novel type of material which resembles a graphene nanoribbon but in molecular form. This material could be important for the further development of organic solar cells.
ANDREW C. REVKINLesson for aspiring engineers in a fiery failure on the path to routine commercial rocket launches.
Clive ThompsonThis story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. If you drive out to visit Disney’s Epcot center in Orlando, Fla., you will arrive at one of the biggest parking lots in America. With room for 12,000 cars, it sprawls out over 7 million square feet — about the size of 122 football fields. If you look at the lot on Google Maps, you realize that it’s nearly the size of Epcot center itself. Disney built one Epcot to hold the visitors. Then it built another to hold the cars. Disney isn’t alone in its expansive approach to parking. Parking is, after all, what cars do most of the time: The average automobile spends 95 percent of its…
