At present, various manufacturers are committed to the development of low-cost, high-efficiency and environmentally-friendly solar panels. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has also devoted part of its efforts to solar energy technology. It has developed a low-cost nano-scale coating to make solar panels more available. Absorb 20% of sunlight.
The coating is composed of thousands of tiny glass beads, each of which has a width equivalent to one-hundredth of the width of the hair. When sunlight shines on the glass beads, the light waves rotate around the nanobeads. It can be imagined as a circle around London. The sound of St. Paul's Cathedral dome, this kind of curve structure leads to a whispering gallery, even small sounds can easily be heard from afar.
As early as ten years ago, research teams have used the concept of whispering gallery in the light, but few studies have been applied to the coating of solar cells. NIST researcher Dongheon Ha and the University of Maryland (UM) nano-center formed a team, during experimental tests, was The light captured by the nanoresonator coating eventually bleeds out and is absorbed by the underlying gallium arsenide solar cell.
Researchers use different colors to distinguish different diameters of nano glass beads. Each bead can be used as an optical whispering gallery or resonator to absorb different wavelengths of sunlight. Research used lasers to test glass beads in nanoresonator coatings. The solar panel can absorb 20% more visible light, and the measurement results also show that the coating will also increase the battery current by 20%.
Ha said that this was the first team to use precision nanometer measurements to demonstrate coating efficiency. Although it was previously calculated that the coating can improve solar cell performance, it was not until the team successfully developed the nanometer measurement technology required for research. Clearly something.
The research team also developed a fast, low-cost nanoresonator overcoating method. Previous researchers have soaked semiconductor materials in solution. However, this method requires more time, and even if only one side needs to be overcoated, the soaking method will allow Both sides of the semiconductor are covered.
Therefore, the team developed a new overcoating method by placing the nanoresonator droplets on the side of the solar cell and pulling the wire around the metal rod to pull the nano-solution on the cell and form a tightly packed Coatings. This is the first time that researchers have used metal rods to coat, and this method has been supported by the team. Ha noted that this type of overcoating can save money and enable large-scale manufacturing. The current research has been published in Nanotechnology (Nanotechnology). ).
