Sunlight is very damaging and one of the major problems today with solar panels is that the solar cells degrade overtime from sunlight and we all know solar panels do not come cheap. So, how does plants, who are constantly exposed to sunlight throughout the day, maintain its sunlight converting capabilities? The answer is, they are constantly recycling their proteins, or chloroplasts, as often as every 45 minutes.
So, researchers at MIT have set out to reproduce this regenerative ability of plants in their solar cells, and they succeeded. Normal solar panels generate electricity by using sunlight to shake electrons from molecules loose. The electrons then follow a path of least resistance and thus become electricity.
The system that MIT devised contains seven different compounds, such as carbon nanotubes that provide structure and also provide a path of least resistance away from the cells. These seven compounds, under certain conditions, assemble themselves into uniform structures that are capable of harnessing solar energy. However, in the presence of certain compounds called surfactants, the structures break down into the original compounds. To remove this surfactant, MIT researchers used a method that pushes the mixture through a membrane that filters the surfactant. Without the presence of the surfactant, the compounds assemble themselves again into the uniform structures that can convert sunlight into electricity as if they were new. So, basically these solar panels can be renewed by pouring the surfactant and then filtering it.
The solar panels right now work at 40 percent efficiency but the researchers believe that they can push this much higher.
This a big step forward for solar energy and future solar panels might very well use this technology.
No comments:
Post a Comment