No To Carbon
A new twist on the term power plant!
North Carolina experts indicate how water based ‘artificial leaf’ produces electricity
Did you know that a North Carolina State University team has shown that water gel-based solar devices (called: “artificial leaves”) can act like solar cells to generate electricity?
The research has been released on-line within the Journal of Materials Chemistry by Dr. Orlin Velev, an Invista Professor of Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering.
The conclusions prove the concept for making solar cells that more closely copy nature. They also have the possibility to be less costly and more beneficial to our environment than the recent standard silicon based solar cells.
The bendable devices are composed of water-based gel infused along with light-sensitive molecules (like plant chlorophyll) coupled with electrodes coated by carbon components, such as carbon nanotubes or graphite.
Graphene is the standard structural element of a number of carbon allotropes such as graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. Graphene is a 1-atom thick planar sheet of carbon atoms that are largely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The title comes from graphite ene; graphite itself consists of several graphene sheets stacked together.
The light-sensitive molecules get “excited” by the sun’s rays to generate electricity, similar to plant molecules that get excited to synthesize all kinds of sugar in order to grow.
Dr. Velev states that the research team hopes to be able to “learn how to mimic the materials where nature harnesses solar energy.” Although artificial light-sensitive molecules can be used, Velev says naturally extracted products, like chlorophyll, are also very easily integrated in these units because of their own water-gel matrix.
Velev even imagines a future in which rooftops could be covered with soft sheets of similar electricity-generating synthetic-leaf photo voltaic cells. The concept of biologically inspired ‘soft’ devices for generating electricity may in the future offer an alternative for the present-day solid-state technologies.
About the Author: Colleen Mcguire is currently writing for the <a href=”http://www.solarwaterfountains.org/”>solar fountains for the garden</a> blog, her personal hobby website focused on suggestions to help homeowners to spend a smaller amount energy with solar energy.
Reference: Aqueous soft matter based photovoltaic or pv devices. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2011; DOI: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2011/JM/c0jm01820a
