Amazing Experiment Creates 3D Self-Folding Solar Cell Around Water Droplet
University of Illinois researchers discovered a method to manufacture three-dimensional, single-crystalline silicon solar cells from thin films. They used photolithography and a process driven by capillary interaction that made the micron-thick film to bend around itself.
Solar Heat Powered Machine Turns CO2 Back Into Fuel
This is the simple description, of course - the machine, made of a metal cylinder, is called the CR5 (Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator) is working on the principle that heat triggers a thermo-chemical reaction in an iron-rich composite material.
Korean Scientists Find Quick and Easy Way to Produce Bio-Plastics
Petroleum stands at the base of every plastic we usually find on today's market. Polymers are everywhere, and if petroleum resources are about to go scarce with time, it's a good idea to replace it with other renewable and biodegradable material that we could use just as well as we use petroleum today.
Interesting and Easy to Build Solar "Sandwich" Makes Efficient Use of Space
I have just received a comment on one of my articles this afternoon from a certain mr. Ryszard Dzikowski, who presents his innovation I call "solar sandwich", consisting of two Gratzel organic cells, faced one another, and covered by reflective layers on the sides, except for one, which is used to feed the aggregate with light.
New Polymer Synthesis Cuts Plastic Solar Cell Production Time by 50%
Their discovery drastically reduces the reaction time (99% faster). In the past, the reaction that took place in 48 hours, now only lasts 30 minutes and increases the average molecular weight of the polymer by a factor of more than three.
BACS: Biodegradable Packaging Fabricated by Bacteria
Today's civilized society sometimes uses weird ways of doing things, like packing software serial numbers in cardboard or a lot of plastic. A project, named Bacs, is using bacteria to make an interesting cellulose material for green packaging.
Bulk Fluid-Processed Carbon Nanotubes Could Make Better Power Lines
Scientists at Rice University have developed a new method for producing carbon nanotubes in bulk fluids. It could lead to revolutionary advances in nanoelectronics, materials science and power distribution.
Optical Fiber Solar Cells: Cheap, Flexible, Six Times More Efficient
Georgia Tech researchers have developed a system that uses dye-sensitized (Grätzel) solar cells wrapped around optical fibers to increase their overall efficiency, since it's known Grätzel cells are not very efficient. The fiber solar cells they obtained are 6 times more efficient than zinc-oxide solar cells having the same area.
Precision Nanoparticles Technology to Revolutionize Solar Cells
The chemists from the Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University may have found the gold mine of solar energy efficiency. They invented the manufacturing of a highly precise and uniform nanopaticle that improves solar cells and further spurs the growing nanotech revolution.
Thermeleon: Roof Turning from Black to White as Temperature Changes
While attending a competition for teams of MIT students, Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest (MADMEC), a team of students and fresh-graduates have shown an invention that could turn the old roof tiles into chameleon-like tiles, turning from black to white and vice-versa as temperatures get low, respectively high.
