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Abstract
Energy production involves basic challenges like cost, mass production and useful
efficiencies. Nanotechnology provides most promising solutions to these problems. Solar
cells which use silicon through vacuum deposition suffer from losses and high costs. These
can be replaced by plastic solar cells that use nanorods. Quantum dots for solar cells provide
better efficiencies. Nanoparticle inks with the use of cadmium indium gallium diselinide
provide thin film photo voltaic cells which are printable solar cells. Researchers believe that
the use of nanotechnology in solar panels, photovoltaics would bring a revolution where roofs
will allow solar power generation. Also, hydrogen fuel cells can be used in automobiles with
the help of carbon nanotubes (CNT’S) and buckyballs. In this paper, all these recent
breakthroughs of nanotechnology in the field of solar power and hydrogen fuel cells are
discussed.
Introduction
Energy resources that share a major part in the world today are threat to extinction. Solar
energy, as a known fact is 20000 times more than the required energy. But, we are unable to
use even 1% of it efficiently. Nanotechnology gives many solutions for efficient and cost-
effective solar power generation. Some of those are:
•Plastic solar cells
•Quantum dots for solar cells
•Thin film photovoltaics or printable solar cells
The other energy source that can be made possible with the help of nanotechnology is
hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen fuel cells are the devices which convert hydrogen directly into
electricity. Designing a safe compact fuel tank for these is a problem which can be solved by
nanotechnology.
field can be established. This electric field acts as a diode, because it only allows electrons to
flow in one direction consequently, the end result is a current of electrons, better known to us
as electricity. Conventional solar cells have two main drawbacks:
They can only achieve efficiencies around ten percent and they are expensive to
manufacture. The first drawback, inefficiency, is almost unavoidable with silicon cells. This
is because the incoming photons, or light, must have the right energy, called the band gap
energy, to knock out an electron. If the photon has less energy than the band gap energy then
it will pass through. If it has more energy than the band gap, then that extra energy will be
wasted as heat. Scott Aldous, an engineer for the North Carolina Solar Center explains that,
“These two effects alone account for the loss of around 70 percent of the radiation energy
incident on the cell”
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory have been
experimenting with quantum dots as a semiconductor in a solar cell. They have discovered
that the use of the quantum dots allows solar energy to release multiple electrons, not just
one. This research has the potential to make major improvements in the manufacturing of
photovoltaic cells. The two research teams have calculated that a maximum of solar
conversion to electricity to a 42 percent efficiency rate is possible from the conversion of
solar energy to electricity. The solar cells could be used to make hydrogen directly from
water for fuel cells. The researchers still need more time and research to complete their
studies.
Based on these results, CIGS seems to have the most commercial potential. It is the only thin
film technology that even approaches the performance of crystalline silicon. Thin film
silicon, in contrast, lags far behind. Indeed, the positive outlook for CIGS solar cells is
reflected in the venture funding received by companies such as Nanosolar. Yet actually
achieving such superior performance in commercial production has been difficult, for two
reasons. First, CIGS is a complex quaternary alloy in which indium and gallium can
substitute freely. The band gap of the cell changes as the composition fluctuates. Consistent
performance requires uniform deposition over the entire area of the panel. One possible
solution, co-sputtering of all four elements, can fail because of target poisoning: the selenium
reacts with the surfaces of the other targets, and creates an insulating layer that resists further
sputtering.
An alternative method, co-sputtering of copper, indium, and gallium, followed by a
hydrogen selenide vapor treatment, requires substantial time at elevated temperatures. The
time increases the process cost, while the elevated temperature causes phase segregation.
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Nanosolar Technology
Nanosolar is a company that devised a technology to design printable solar cells in which
CIGS is used. The company uses copper indium gallium diselenide which achieves up to
19.9% efficiency in laboratory samples to build their thin film solar cells. The company's
technology gained early industry recognition with the presentation of a Small Times
Magazine award at a leading nanotech business event in 2005. Nanosolar's solar cells have
been verified by NREL to be as efficient as 14.6% in 2006, with no more recent results
announced by the company. These details involve a semiconductor ink that it claims will
enable it to produce solar cells with a basic printing process, rather than using slow and
expensive high-vacuum based thin-film deposition processes. In Nanosolar's process, the ink
is deposited on a flexible substrate (the “paper”), and then nano components in the ink align
themselves properly via molecular self-assembly.
Nanosolar has developed a suite of in-house capabilities for creating nano structured
components based on various patented and patent-pending techniques. It uses nano structured
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result, the nanotube grid has the capacity to absorb large amounts of hydrogen gas in a tank
about the size of an automobile gas tank. Once the tank is filled up with the hydrogen, the
driver would start the car engine. This action would cause the hydrogen to dislodge from its
storage area, the tank, and float through a hose into the fuel cell. In the fuel cell, the hydrogen
would be converted into electricity and water vapor. However, while fuel cells look
promising, more research will need to be done before a mass production of hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles are on the road.
Conclusion
The advancements in the nanotechnology opened the gates of complexities involved in solar
power and hydrogen fuel cells and made them more reliable. Yet there is a need for
consistent research for obtaining desired results. Researchers believe, nanotechnology would
revolutionize the updated science such that we can anticipate pollution free vehicles moving
on the road and every roof top with nano solar panels.
References
Nanotechnology 101 by John Mongillo
Nonconventional Energy Sources by G.D.Rai
www.wikipedia.org
www.scribd.com
www.nanosolar.com