This revolutionary new solar technology can be further extended to more places, such as parts of British Columbia and Northern Europe, which are often cloudy. After further research and development, these bio-solar cells are likely to be combined with traditional solar panels. The artificial battery used in it is equally efficient.
Project leader Vikramaditya Yadav, professor of chemical and bioengineering at the University of British Columbia, said: 'This unique solution we developed for British Columbia is an important step in making solar technology more economical. ' Solar cells are made from solar panels They are made up of modules that convert sunlight into electricity.
Previously, researchers have also built bio-solar cells, but they are all working to extract the natural dyes that bacteria use for photosynthesis. It is a costly and complicated process that requires not only the use of toxic solvents, but also the degradation of dyes. The solution proposed by researchers at the University of British Columbia is to preserve these biological dyes in bacteria.
They genetically edited E. coli to produce large amounts of lycopene, a dye that gives tomatoes a red-orange color, and this dye is particularly efficient at converting light into energy. The researchers wrapped a layer of mine for E. coli. The substance acts as a semiconductor and is placed on a glass surface.
The researchers used coated glass as an electrode for solar cells, and their device achieved a current density of 0.686 mA per square millimeter, an increase of 0.362 mAh over other bio-solar cells in the field. Yadav said: 'We have created bio-solar Recording of the highest current density of the battery. The hybrid materials we developed are inexpensive to manufacture and sustainable, and after sufficient optimization, their conversion efficiency is comparable to that of traditional solar cells.
The cost savings of this technology are difficult to estimate, but Yadav believes that this process reduces the cost of dye extraction by one-tenth. Yadav says the focus of this research is that we have discovered a process that does not kill bacteria, so they The ability to manufacture bio-dyes indefinitely. This bio-solar cell technology also has other potential applications, such as mining, deep-sea exploration and other low-light environments.