Future of Solar Cells with Nanotechnology

We mentioned in our “Harvesting Solar Power with Nanomaterials” blog how the introduction of nanomaterials in solar technology improves the efficiency, and reduces the cost of solar systems. This is due to the unique properties of the nanomaterials which lead to band gap adjustments, higher absorption, and less charge recombination. Here, we discover the new features that nanotechnology can introduce to the solar cells and solar technology.

Extensive research have been done in different universities and facilities to develop solar cells and to introduce new materials in order to improve their performance and create new properties such as flexibility, transparency, and self-cleaning. Flexibility is a new and important property of solar cells that can be achieved by nanotechnology. An example of these research, is the research done in MIT to develop solar cells that are made from single molecule thick sheets of graphene and other nanomaterials such as molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2). These solar cells are predicted to give 1000 times more power for a given weigh of material than conventional solar cells.

Besides flexibility, transparent solar cells can also be made. MIT researchers study the applicability of graphene coated with zinc oxide nanowires to solar cells. The researchers believe that these nanomaterials will allow the production of low cost flexible solar cells at high enough efficiency to be competitive. These flexible and transparent solar cells can be installed on different sites of buildings including windows. Self-cleaning solar cell panels are another type of solar cells that can be developed by nanotechnology. This can be achieved by coating the solar panel with a self-cleaning nanohydrophobic material that maintain peak efficiency over longer periods of time. This reduces the cleaning costs as well as maintaining the efficiency. These new properties can revolutionize the way of harvesting solar power by enabling the installation of the solar cells in different buildings with affordable costs and accepted efficiencies.http://nanografi.com/blog/future-of-solar-cells-with-nanotechnology/

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