Univ. improves solar panels

Solar panels may become much easier and more efficient to produce, thanks to new findings on light interaction from a group of university researchers.

The researchers from the physics department developed a less specialized process to create nanostructures — microscopic particles that are used in the production of the photovoltaic solar cells used in solar panels.

The research could lead to photovoltaic cells that are significantly more efficient at converting sunlight into energy, said Min Ouyang, an assistant physics professor who led the research team. Increased production efficiency is vital to establishing solar power as a viable energy option.

"The current issue in solar energy is low efficiency because there are major limitations in photovoltaics [cells]," Ouyang said.

Ouyang said the research into nanostructures would also assist in creating a quantum computer and other energy-generating items, such as biomarkers used in medicine.

"We should be able to integrate these new materials together in order to create new understandings in many fields of science," Ouyang said.

The university's research was published in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature, the second of a two-part report on the team's findings.

While the previous report — published in March in Science — focused mainly on the team's research with material chemistry, the researchers have now begun discussing how society can take advantage of the technology.

"We tried to integrate material science with physics knowledge and make new interactions with common materials," Ouyang said.

The team used chemistry and thermodynamics to produce solutions with a shell of perfectly structured crystal semiconductors around a metal core, he said.

These semiconductors, which convert light to energy in a photovoltaic cell, are currently produced under a process known as epitaxy, in which small crystal structures are seeded and then grown in layers of microscopic film.

Using the research team's hybrid nanostructures, which have patents pending, solar panels could be more cheaply produced without sterilized facilities and large vacuums, Ouyang said.

Because these expensive items are not needed in Ouyang's process, the nanostructures — and ultimately, solar panels — could become easier to manufacture and market commercially, he added.

"Commercial use is the key in expanding solar technology, and this could definitely increase commercial use," Ouyang said.

Ongoing research by the team will delve further into the world of solar energy, in the hopes that new cells made with their nanostructures would be better able to convert light energy into electricity.

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