Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials Archives – The Green Optimistic green tech news, since 2008 Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:49:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 2667534 Wake Forest Researchers Develop Polymer-Based Solar PV & Thermal Device https://www.greenoptimistic.com/wake-forest-solar-thermal-pv-20110429/ https://www.greenoptimistic.com/wake-forest-solar-thermal-pv-20110429/#respond Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:49:30 +0000 https://www.greenoptimistic.com/?p=18314 Infrared light makes up the most part of the light spectrum, but the glitch in today's solar panels is that they can't really harvest it for direct electricity generation, because of the long wavelengths involved. Thus, a standard solar panel misses about 75% of the incoming energy, and some of them, concentrated solar cells, need cooling to prevent damage to the silicon substrate that favors the energy conversion.

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]]> https://www.greenoptimistic.com/wake-forest-solar-thermal-pv-20110429/feed/ 0 18314 New Polymer That Harvests Both Heat and Light Invented at Wake Forest University https://www.greenoptimistic.com/polymer-heat-light-wake-forest-20110405/ https://www.greenoptimistic.com/polymer-heat-light-wake-forest-20110405/#respond Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:01:15 +0000 https://www.greenoptimistic.com/?p=17809 One day we will get as far as taking a shower and turning on the heat in our room with the energy our roof has collected over the day. And when I say this I feel encouraged by the new solar-thermal device based on polymer material that Wake Forest University researchers invented.

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