Tag Archives: photovoltaics

Light: harvesting with transformation *optics and sensing with a photovoltaic bracelet

There’s a good general description (although it’s still quite technical and challenging) of nanoplasmonics in a Jan. 6, 2014 news release on EurekAlert (later in this posting I have an item about a practical application for photovoltaics),

The control of light is vital to many applications, including imaging, communications, sensing, cancer treatment, and even welding processes for automobile parts. Transformation optics is an emerging field that has revolutionized our understanding of how to control light by constituting an effectively curved electromagnetic space. This revolutionary strategy not only revisits the fundamental physics of light-matter interactions, but also renders trivial the design of optical functions that may otherwise be difficult or virtually impossible, such as an “invisibility cloak,” which could only previously be found in science fiction. When compared with ray optics, the new transformation optics technique provides a picture that is equally intuitive, but that is much more accurate in its description of the wave nature of light by using the electric and magnetic field lines as its basis. Therefore, the validity of this method is not restricted to the macroscopic regime, but can also be extended to the subwavelength scale. In a recent review paper published by SCIENCE CHINA Information Sciences, Yu Luo and colleagues from Imperial College London illustrate how the general capabilities of the transformation optics technique can be used to treat the subwavelength fields that occur in plasmonic systems and review the latest developments in transformation optics as applied to nanophotonics.

Here’s a more detailed description of the difficulties and the solution (transformation optics) from the news release,

In plasmonics, metallic structures with sharp corners can trap light into nanometric volumes, thus giving rise to strong near-field enhancements. This effect can be used to detect single molecules, generate high harmonic signals, and even improve absorption in photovoltaic devices. Further developments using these techniques need to be guided by accurate and versatile theoretical modeling. However, modeling of this type can be difficult, because various aspects associated with the sharp plasmonic structures can hinder provision of accurate and convenient solutions to the problem at hand. First, the size of the sharp metallic point structure is normally much smaller than that of the device overall, which makes it difficult to create meshes for numerical simulations. Second, the strong contrast in the dielectric functions at the metal-dielectric interfaces leads to slow convergence of the field expansions. Yu Luo and colleagues deploy the theory of transformation optics to circumvent these problems. Their idea is to transform a complex plasmonic system with little intrinsic geometrical symmetry into a canonical structure with translational or rotational symmetry, which is then relatively easy to study using conventional theory. For example, two touching nanowires can be transformed into two flat metal surfaces that are separated by a gap, and a sharp metal edge can be related to a periodic array of metal slabs. Other structures that can be studied using transformation optics include pairs of metallic nanospheres, asymmetric core-shell structures and rough metal surfaces. In fact, using transformation optics techniques, we could reverse engineer the optical properties of complex plasmonic nanostructures and redesign these structures based on the requirements of the desired applications.

And then, there’s what seems to be a plea for more researchers in the field,

Practical issues with the realization of plasmonic devices, such as the effects of edge rounding at sharp boundaries on the local field enhancement and resonance properties, can also be considered theoretically using transformation optics and provide useful guidance for the fabrication of these devices. In particular, the necessary conditions are highlighted for both broadband light absorption effects and large field enhancements. Experimental evidence for phenomena that have been predicted by transformation optics has also been reviewed, indicating potential applications in biosensing and broadband solar photovoltaics. These studies demonstrate the accuracy and versatility of transformation optics methods and are expected to encourage more researchers to enter this field. [emphasis mine]

Honestly, I don’t understand nanoplasmonics very well even after reading the description but there’s enough accessible information in the news release to help me achieve a better understanding. For those who want to further explore this latest work in trransformative optics and nanoplasmonics, here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Harvesting light with transformation optics by LUO Yu, ZHAO RongKuo, FERNANDEZ-DOMINGUEZ Antonio I., MAIER Stefan A., & PENDRY John B… Sci China Inf Sci, 2013, 56(12): 120401(13).

This paper is open access as of Jan. 8, 2014.

Photovoltaic bracelet/brooch

On to the other ‘light’ topic mentioned earlier. John Brownlee has written about June, a photovoltaic bracelet, which tells you how much sun exposure you’ve had, in a Jan. 7, 2014 article for Fast Company (aka Co-Design; Note: Links have been removed),

… Meet the June, a bedazzling, Bluetooth-connected bracelet that tells you how much sun you’re getting. But don’t dismiss the June just because you’re not worried about the SPF. This is the future of wearables. [emphasis mine]

… fashionably designed wearable that measures exposure to the sun. Made by Netatmo and designed by Louis Vuitton and Harry Winston collaborator Camille Toupet, the June syncs over Bluetooth to a paired iPhone, where an app tells you how much sun you’re getting based upon readings from the bracelet’s photovoltaic gem, and then recommends sunglasses, a hat or a specific sunscreen based upon the measurements. It costs $100,

Lily Hay Newman in a Jan. 8, 2014 posting on Slate’s future tense blog challenges the notion that June is the “future of wearables,”

… it really only does one thing: It measures sun exposure. It’s a single-use device that syncs to a single-use app. Perhaps it foreshadows a world where we each customize our array of wearable sensors by picking and choosing among single-focus gadgets from day to day. Which sensors we want and how we want to look would both play a part in dictating how we dressed and accessorized. Wearables certainly would be a lot more attractive if they weren’t crammed with maximal functionality. But this is also wildly inefficient, and previous technologies haven’t evolved this way. Cameras, MP3 players, calculators, notebooks, calendars, phones, and everything else eventually collapsed into smartphones: one device. No matter how attractive a sensor-turned-bracelet is, there’s a limit to how many wearables one person can actually, you know, wear.

She also notes that June is being marketed to women primarily and suggests that wearables offer an opportunity to change how technology is marketed (Note:Llinks have been removed),

Since the aesthetic direction of wearables is still undetermined, and is currently dictated by the tech inside, the devices present a good opportunity to move away from traditional, often reductive, male and female marketing, which can be particularly blatant in tech. Example: the EPad Femme tablet for women. Alternate example: The Honda Fit She’s. It’s a tall order, but balancing form and function is the crux of the uncertainty in wearables right now.

I recommend reading both articles (Brownlee’s contains a June promotional video). For the curious here’s what the bracelet looks like (from the June webpage),

[downloaded from http://www.netatmo.com/en-US/product/june]

[downloaded from http://www.netatmo.com/en-US/product/june]

June  can also be worn as a brooch; the Netatmo website’s June webpage states,

Versatile, JUNE can be worn as a bracelet or as a brooch.

I haven’t been able to find a product launch date other than it will be ‘sometime in 2014’.

* Removed an extra preposition ‘with’ that preceded the word optics.

Pop and rock music lead to better solar cells

A Nov. 6, 2013 news item on Nanowerk reveals that scientists at the Imperial College of London (UK) and Queen Mary University of London (UK),

Playing pop and rock music improves the performance of solar cells, according to new research from scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London.

The high frequencies and pitch found in pop and rock music cause vibrations that enhanced energy generation in solar cells containing a cluster of ‘nanorods’, leading to a 40 per cent increase in efficiency of the solar cells.

The study has implications for improving energy generation from sunlight, particularly for the development of new, lower cost, printed solar cells.

The Nov. 6, 2013 Imperial College of London (ICL) news release, which originated the news item, gives more details about the research,

The researchers grew billions of tiny rods (nanorods) made from zinc oxide, then covered them with an active polymer to form a device that converts sunlight into electricity.

Using the special properties of the zinc oxide material, the team was able to show that sound levels as low as 75 decibels (equivalent to a typical roadside noise or a printer in an office) could significantly improve the solar cell performance.

“After investigating systems for converting vibrations into electricity this is a really exciting development that shows a similar set of physical properties can also enhance the performance of a photovoltaic,” said Dr Steve Dunn, Reader in Nanoscale Materials from Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science.

Scientists had previously shown that applying pressure or strain to zinc oxide materials could result in voltage outputs, known as the piezoelectric effect. However, the effect of these piezoelectric voltages on solar cell efficiency had not received significant attention before.

“We thought the soundwaves, which produce random fluctuations, would cancel each other out and so didn’t expect to see any significant overall effect on the power output,” said James Durrant, Professor of Photochemistry at Imperial College London, who co-led the study.

“The key for us was that not only that the random fluctuations from the sound didn’t cancel each other out, but also that some frequencies of sound seemed really to amplify the solar cell output – so that the increase in power was a remarkably big effect considering how little sound energy we put in.”

“We tried playing music instead of dull flat sounds, as this helped us explore the effect of different pitches. The biggest difference we found was when we played pop music rather than classical, which we now realise is because our acoustic solar cells respond best to the higher pitched sounds present in pop music,” he concluded.

The discovery could be used to power devices that are exposed to acoustic vibrations, such as air conditioning units or within cars and other vehicles.

This is not the first time that music has been shown to affect properties at the nanoscale. A March 12, 2008 article by Anna Salleh for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation featured a researcher who tested nanowire growth by playing music (Note: Links have been removed),

Silicon nanowires grow more densely when blasted with Deep Purple than any other music tested, says an Australian researcher.

But the exact potential of music in growing nanowires remains a little hazy.

David Parlevliet, a PhD student at Murdoch University in Perth, presented his findings at a recent Australian Research Council Nanotechnology Network symposium in Melbourne.

Parlevliet is testing nanowires for their ability to absorb sunlight in the hope of developing solar cells from them.

I’ve taken a look at the references cited by researchers in their paper and there is nothing from Parleviet listed, so, this seems to be one of those cases where more than one scientist is thinking along the similar lines, i.e., that sound might affect nanoscale structures in such a way as to improve solar cell efficiency.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the ICL/University of Queen Mary research paper,

Acoustic Enhancement of Polymer/ZnO Nanorod Photovoltaic Device Performance by Safa Shoaee, Joe Briscoe, James R. Durrant, Steve Dunn. Article first published online: 6 NOV 2013 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201303304
© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

This paper is behind a paywall.

Materials research and nanotechnology for clean energy at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia)

Getting to the bottom line of a complex set of  interlinked programs and initiatives, it’s safe to say that a group of US students went to study with research Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) in the first Materials Research School which was held Dec. 9 -21, 2012.

Rutgers University (New Jersey, US)  student Aleksandra Biedron attended the Materials Research School as a member of a joint Rutgers University-Princeton University Nanotechnology for Clean Energy graduate training program (one of the US National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship [IGERT] programs).

In a Summer 2013 (volume 14) issue of Rutgers University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology News, Biedron describes the experience,

The program brought together approximately 50 graduate students and early-career materials researchers from across the United States and East Africa, as well as 15 internationally recognized instructors, for two weeks of lectures, problem solving, and cultural exchange. “I was interested in meeting young African scientists to discuss energy materials, a universal concern, which is relevant to my research in ionic liquids,” said Biedron, a graduate of Livingston High School [Berkeley Heights, New Jersey]. “I was also excited to see Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and experience the culture and historical attractions.”

A cornerstone of the Nanotechnology for Clean Energy IGERT program is having the students apply their training in a dynamic educational exchange program with African institutions, promoting development of the students’ global awareness and understanding of the challenges involved in global scientific and economic development. In Addis Ababa, Biedron quickly noticed how different the scope of research was between the African scientists and their international counterparts.

“The African scientists’ research was really solution-based,” said Biedron. “They were looking at how they could use their natural resources to solve some of their region’s most pressing issues, not only for energy, but also health, clean water, and housing. You don’t really see that as much in the U.S. because we are already thinking about the future, 10 or 20 years from now.”

H/T centraljerseycentral.com, Aug. 1, 2013 news item.

I found a little more information about the first Materials Research School on this Columbia University JUAMI (Joint US-Africa Materials Initiative) webpage,

The Joint US-Africa Materials Initiative
Announces its first Materials Research School
To be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 9-21, 2012

Theme of the school:

The first school will concentrate on materials research for sustainable energy. Tutorials and seminar topics will range from photocatalysis and photovoltaics to fuel cells and batteries.

Goals of the school:

The initiative aims to build materials science research and collaborations between the United States and Africa, with an initial focus on East Africa, and to develop ties between young materials researchers in both regions in a school taught by top materials researchers. The school will bring together approximately 50 PhD and early career materials researchers from across the US and East Africa, and 15 internationally recognized instructors, for two weeks of lectures, problem solving and cultural exchange in historic Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Topics include photocatalysis, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, fuel cells, and batteries.

I also found this on the IGERT homepage,

IGERT Trainees participate in:
  • Interdisciplinary courses in the fundamentals of energy technology, nanotechnology and energy policy.
  • Dissertation research emphasizing nanotechnology and energy.
  • Dynamic educational exchange between U.S. and select African institutions.

Making solar panels beautiful

Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena are working on ways to make solar panels more aesthetically pleasing according to a July 1, 2013 news item on Azonano,

Until now, designers of buildings have no choice but to use black or bluish-gray colored solar panels. With the help of thin-film technologies, researchers have now been able to turn solar cells into colorful creations.

Covering a roof or a façade with standard solar cells to generate electricity will change a building’s original appearance – and not always for the better. At present only dark solar panels are widely available on the market. “Not enough work has been done so far on combining photovoltaics and design elements to really do the term ‘customized photovoltaics’ justice,” says Kevin Füchsel, project manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena.

But things are changing. The IOF physicist has been focusing for the last four years on nanostructured solar cells suitable for mass production as part of a junior research group funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). Together with a Fraunhofer team and scientists from the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, the group of optics specialists is looking for cost-effective techniques and manufacturing processes to increase both the efficiency of solar panels and the design flexibility they give architects and designers.

Here’s photomontage illustrating Füchsel’s ideas,

The photomontage shows how the Fraunhofer IAO building in Stuttgart could be fitted with an “efficient design” solar façade. © Fraunhofer IOF

The photomontage shows how the Fraunhofer IAO building in Stuttgart could be fitted with an “efficient design” solar façade.
© Fraunhofer IOF

The July 1, 2013 Fraunhofer Institute news release, which originated the news item, describes Füchsel’s work in more detail,

Füchsel is currently working with his “efficient design” team on the fundamentals of how to make colored solar cells from paper-thin silicon wafers. These will be particularly suited to designs for decorative façades and domestic roofs. The silicon semiconductor material, just a few micrometers thick, absorbs light and turns it into electricity. To enable lots of light to reach the silicon substrate, the semiconductor layer is given an optically neutral protective barrier (insulator), onto which a hundred-nanometer-thick oxide layer is applied. This transparent conductive oxide (TCO) conducts electricity, and is there primarily to guide as many light particles as possible to the semiconductor layer below. “TCO has a lower refractive index than silicon, so it works as an anti-reflective coating,” Füchsel says.

The simple construction of this SIS (semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor) solar cell, with its transparent outer layer, has a further advantage: Not only does it capture more light, it means solar panels can be made in different colors and shapes. “The color comes from changing the physical thickness of the transparent conductive oxide layer, or modifying its refractive index,” Füchsel says. The Jena-based researchers have thus managed to combine wafer-based silicon with processes borrowed from thin-film photovoltaics. They are also pioneering the use of innovative coating materials. Indium tin oxide is the most common material used today, but it is expensive.  The IOF laboratory is working on how to use cheaper zinc oxide with added aluminum. New opportunities in façade design are being opened up not just by SIS solar cells, however, but also by dye solar modules and flexible organic solar cells.

But how does color affect the efficiency of these new SIS modules? “Giving solar cells color doesn’t really affect their efficiency. The additional transparent TCO layer has barely any impact on the current yield,” Füchsel says. Simulations showed that SIS cells could be up to 20 percent efficient. In practice, the efficiency depends on the design of the solar panels and the direction the building faces. But not every color allows you to generate the same amount of electricity. There are restrictions for example with certain blends of red, blue and green.

To connect several solar cells to create a single module the IOF scientist will use laser-based optical welding processes. They enable accurate work at a micrometer scale and do not damage the surrounding material. Researchers are also developing an inkjet printing process to contact the conductive TCO later on the silicon wafer. This will make manufacturing faster and allow additional degrees of flexibility in design. SIS solar cells could even be used to make large billboards that produce their own electricity. Patents already cover the production of colored cells, as well as the ability to integrate design elements into solar panels and whole modules. “This opens up numerous possibilities to use a building to communicate information, displaying the name of a company or even artistic pictures,” Füchsel says.

I look forward to a more beautiful future.

University of Toronto’s Ted Sargent and his colloidal quantum dots make news again

Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto is one of the most consistent communicators, in Canada, about nanoscale research. His work is focused on solar panels/cells and colloidal quantum dots and according to a Mar. 7, 2013 news release on EurekAlert, there have been some new developments,

A new technique developed by U of T Engineering Professor Ted Sargent and his research group could lead to significantly more efficient solar cells, according to a recent paper published in the journal Nano Letters.

The paper, “Jointly-tuned plasmonic-excitonic photovoltaics using nanoshells,” describes a new technique to improve efficiency in colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics, a technology which already promises inexpensive, more efficient solar cell technology. Quantum dot photovoltaics offers the potential for low-cost, large-area solar power – however these devices are not yet highly efficient in the infrared portion of the sun’s spectrum, which is responsible for half of the sun’s power that reaches the Earth.

The solution? Spectrally tuned, solution-processed plasmonic nanoparticles. These particles, the researchers say, provide unprecedented control over light’s propagation and absorption.

The new technique developed by Sargent’s group shows a possible 35 per cent increase in the technology’s efficiency in the near-infrared spectral region, says co-author Dr. Susanna Thon. Overall, this could translate to an 11 per cent solar power conversion efficiency increase, she says, making quantum dot photovoltaics even more attractive as an alternative to current solar cell technologies.

The University of Toronto Mar. 7, 2013 news release written by Terry Lavender, which is the original of the one on EurekAlert, goes on to explain the interest in colloidal quantum dots and to describe the new technique,

“There are two advantages to colloidal quantum dots,” Thon says. “First, they’re much cheaper, so they reduce the cost of electricity generation measured in cost per watt of power. But the main advantage is that by simply changing the size of the quantum dot, you can change its light-absorption spectrum.

“Changing the size is very easy, and this size-tunability is a property shared by plasmonic materials: by changing the size of the plasmonic particles, we were able to overlap the absorption and scattering spectra of these two key classes of nanomaterials.”

Sargent’s group achieved the increased efficiency by embedding gold nanoshells directly into the quantum dot absorber film. Gold is not usually thought of as an economical material but researchers say lower-cost metals can be used to implement the same concept proved by Thon and her co-workers.

It’s exciting work and a 35% increase in efficiency sounds great, although the base efficiency isn’t mentioned. If your base is one and you increase it to two, you have a 100% increase. As I noted in my July 30, 2012 posting about the team’s last breakthrough which showed a 37% increase in efficiency for their technique but actually worked out to a 7% increase for solar cell efficiency,

I think the excitement over 7% indicates just how much hard work the researchers have accomplished to achieve this efficiency. It reminds me of reading about the early development of electricity (Power struggles; Scientific authority and the creation of practical electricity before Edison by Michael Brian Schiffer)  where accomplishments we would now consider minuscule built careers.

These increases  may be small but they are important not only for the development of solar cells but also as an illustration of how scientific breakthroughs are often a series of small steps and of the infinite patience exercised by researchers.

Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies announces its 2013 list of top 10 emerging technologies

On Feb. 18, 2012 I published a list of technologies with life and globe changing impacts supplied by the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies and, coincidentally, I’m publishing another such list from the Global Agenda Council on exactly the same day in 2013.  Although I’m not alone, Nanowerk has published a Feb. 18, 2013 news item featuring this year’s list, others published the list last week.

From a Feb. 14, 2013 post by Tim Harper (a member of the Global Agenda Council) on his Cientifica company’s Insight blog,

OnLine Electric Vehicles (OLEV)

Already widely used to exchange digital information, wireless technology can now also deliver electric power to moving vehicles. In next-generation electric cars, pick-up coil sets under the vehicle floor receive power remotely via an electromagnetic field broadcast from cables installed under the road surface. The current also charges an onboard battery used to power the vehicle when it is out of range. As electricity is supplied externally, these vehicles require only a fifth the battery capacity of a standard electric car, and can achieve transmission efficiencies of over 80 percent. Online electric vehicles are currently undergoing road tests in Seoul, South Korea.

3-D printing and remote manufacturing

Three-dimensional printing allows the creation of solid structures from a digital computer file, potentially revolutionising the economics of manufacturing if objects can be printed remotely in the home or office rather than requiring time and energy for transportation. The process involves layers of material being deposited on top of each other in order to create free-standing structures from the bottom up. Blueprints from computer-aided design are sliced into cross-section for print templates, allowing virtually-created objects to be used as models for ‘hard copies’ made from plastics, metal alloys or other materials.

Self-healing materials

One of the defining characteristics of living organisms is the inherent ability to repair physical damage done to them. A growing trend in biomimicry is the creation of non-living structural materials that also have the capacity to heal themselves when cut, torn or cracked. Self-healing materials which can repair damage without external human intervention could give manufactured goods longer lifetimes and reduce the demand for raw materials, as well as improving the inherent safety of structural materials used in construction or to form the bodies of aircraft.

Energy-efficient water purification

Water scarcity is a worsening ecological problem in many parts of the world due to competing demands from agriculture, cities and other human uses. Where freshwater systems are over-used or exhausted, desalination from the sea offers near-unlimited water but at the expense of considerable use of energy – mostly from fossil fuels – to drive evaporation or reverse osmosis systems. Emerging technologies offer the potential for significantly higher energy efficiency in desalination or purification of wastewater, potentially reducing energy consumption by 50 percent or more. Techniques such as forward osmosis can additionally improve efficiency by utilising low-grade heat from thermal power production or renewable heat produced by solar-thermal geothermal installations.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion and use

Long-promised technologies for the capture and underground sequestration of carbon dioxide have yet to be proven commercially viable, even at the scale of a single large power station. New technologies that convert the unwanted CO2 into saleable goods can potentially address both the economic and energetic shortcomings of conventional CCS strategies. One of the most promising approaches uses biologically-engineered photosynthetic bacteria to turn waste CO2 into liquid fuels or chemicals, in low-cost, modular solar converter systems. Whilst only operational today at the acre scale, individual systems are expected to reach hundreds of acres within as little as two years. Being 10 to 100 times as productive per unit of land area, these systems address one of the main environmental constraints on biofuels from agricultural or algal feedstock, and could supply lower carbon fuels for automobiles, aviation or other large-scale liquid fuel users.

Enhanced nutrition to drive health at the molecular level

Even in developed countries millions of people suffer from malnutrition due to nutrient deficiencies in their diets. Efforts to improve the situation by changing diets have met with limited success.  Now modern genomic techniques have been applied to determine at the gene sequence level the vast number of naturally-consumed proteins which are important in the human diet. The proteins identified may have advantages over standard protein supplements in that they can supply a greater percentage of essential amino acids, and have improved solubility, taste, texture and nutritional characteristics. The large-scale production of pure human dietary proteins based on the application of biotechnology to molecular nutrition can deliver health benefits such as in muscle development, managing diabetes or reducing obesity.

Remote sensing

The increasingly widespread use of sensors that allow often passive responses to external stimulae will continue to change the way we respond to the environment, particularly in the area of health. Examples include sensors that continually monitor bodily function – such as heart rate, blood oxygen and blood sugar levels – and if necessary trigger a medical response such as insulin provision. Advances rely on wireless communication between devices, low power sensing technologies and, sometimes, active energy harvesting.  Other examples include vehicle-to-vehicle sensing for improved safety on the road.

Precise drug delivery through nanoscale engineering

Pharmaceuticals which can be precisely delivered at the molecular level within or around the cell offer unprecedented opportunities for more effectively treatments while reducing unwanted side effects. Targeted nanoparticles that adhere to diseased tissue allow for the micro-scale delivery of potent therapeutic compounds while minimizing their impact on healthy tissue, and are now advancing in medical trials. After almost a decade of research, these new approaches are now finally showing signs of clinical utility, through increasing the local concentration and exposure time of the required drug and thereby increasing its effectiveness. As well as improving the effects of current drugs, these advances in nanomedicine promise to rescue other drugs, which would otherwise be rejected due to their dose-limiting toxicity.

Organic electronics and photovoltaics

Organic electronics – a type of printed electronics – is the use of organic materials such as polymers to create electronic circuits and devices. In contrast to traditional (silicon based) semiconductors that are fabricated with expensive photolithographic techniques, organic electronics can be printed using low-cost, scalable processes such as ink jet printing- making them extremely cheap compared with traditional electronics devices, both in terms of the cost per device and the capital equipment required to produce them. While organic electronics are currently unlikely to compete with silicon in terms of speed and density, they have the potential to provide a significant edge in terms of cost and versatility. The cost implications of printed mass-produced solar photovoltaic collectors for example could accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

Fourth-generation reactors and nuclear waste recycling

Current once-through nuclear power reactors only utilise 1% of the potential energy available in uranium, leaving the rest radioactively contaminated as nuclear ‘waste’. Whilst the technical challenge of geological disposal is manageable, the political challenge of nuclear waste seriously limits the appeal of this zero-carbon and highly scaleable energy technology. Spent-fuel recycling and breeding uranium-238 into new fissile material – known as ‘Nuclear 2.0’ – would extend already-mined uranium resources for centuries while dramatically reducing the volume and long-term toxicity of wastes, whose radioactivity will drop below the level of the original uranium ore on a timescale of centuries rather millennia. This makes geological disposal much less of a challenge (and arguably even unnecessary) and nuclear waste a minor environmental issue compared to hazardous wastes produced by other industries. Fourth-generation technologies, including liquid metal-cooled fast reactors, are now being deployed in several countries and are offered by established nuclear engineering companies.

You can also find the list in the World Economic Forum’s Feb. 14, 2013 posting by David King (currently the chair of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies). There’s also more information about the Global Agenda Council here.

Using your microwave for DIY (do it yourself) solar panels?

The researchers at Oregon State University seem to think that their discovery will scale up to commercial levels for manufacturing solar panels that are cheaper and easier. Still, if all you need is a microwave, then I imagine some enterprising do-it-yourselfer will give this technique a try.

Microwave oven

This microwave oven technology is being used to produce solar cells with less energy, expense and environmental concerns. (Photo courtesy of Oregon State University Copied from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonstateuniversity/7841150094/in/photostream)

From the Aug. 24, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

The same type of microwave oven technology that most people use to heat up leftover food has found an important application in the solar energy industry, providing a new way to make thin-film photovoltaic products with less energy, expense and environmental concerns.

Engineers at Oregon State University have for the first time developed a way to use microwave heating in the synthesis of copper zinc tin sulfide, a promising solar cell compound that is less costly and toxic than some solar energy alternatives.

The Oregon State University Aug. 24, 2012 news release which originated the news item provides additional detail about the technology and future plans for commercializing it,

“All of the elements used in this new compound are benign and inexpensive, and should have good solar cell performance,” said Greg Herman, an associate professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering at OSU.

“Several companies are already moving in this direction as prices continue to rise for some alternative compounds that contain more expensive elements like indium,” he said. “With some improvements in its solar efficiency this new compound should become very commercially attractive.”

These thin-film photovoltaic technologies offer a low cost, high volume approach to manufacturing solar cells. A new approach is to create them as an ink composed of nanoparticles, which could be rolled or sprayed – by approaches such as old-fashioned inkjet printing – to create solar cells. [emphasis mine]

To further streamline that process, researchers have now succeeded in using microwave heating, instead of conventional heating, to reduce reaction times to minutes or seconds, and allow for great control over the production process. This “one-pot” synthesis is fast, cheap and uses less energy, researchers say, and has been utilized to successfully create nanoparticle inks that were used to fabricate a photovoltaic device.

From a do-it-yourself point of view, this technology sounds even more promising with the mention of an inkjet printer.

Nanotechnology and site remediation; nano company gives aid to Haiti; nano commodity exchange; new Canadian photovoltaic research network; sensual nanotechnology

Tomorrow morning, Feb. 4, 2010, the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) will be webcasting an event titled, Contaminated Site Remediation: Are Nanomaterials the Answer? It starts at 9:30 am PST and the webcast can accessed from here.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the live webcast but I will try to listen to it when they post the feed on their site a few days later. I did post more information, including a link to PEN’s site remediation map, about this event here.

More or less coincident with this event and on a somewhat related note, there is a donation from the company Nanoscale to relief efforts in Haiti. From the news item on Azonano,

NanoScale’s products and expertise in chemical and biological decontamination will provide protection and odor control to those most affected. NanoScale has donated NanoZorb®, a portable decomposition decontamination system based on products originally developed for U.S. military decontamination applications, to selected groups to aid their recovery efforts.

While it is likely as much a public relations effort as relief, bravo!

I’ve come across many comments as to how nanotechnology could be helpful to the environment but most of the examples I’ve seen are in the energy sector (i.e., ways nanotechnology-enabled products can reduce energy use). I’m hopeful these site remediation and decontamination nanotechnology efforts will be helpful and won’t become future problems.

There is a new commodities exchange on the horizon, Integrated Nano-Science Commodity Exchange (INSCX). From the news item on Nanowerk,

INSCX™ – Integrated Nano-Science Commodity Exchange, a patent-pending project to develop a global commodity exchange platform for trade in nano objects, materials and commodities, has formalised an agreement with AssuredNano™ [SHE] to co-ordinate the global accreditation of supply onto the market platform which is scheduled to launch in the UK early 2011.

AssuredNano™ is the premier Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) accreditation scheme for organisations producing nanomaterials, nano-enabled products and users of nanotechnology in general. It promotes the responsible and proactive application of nanomaterial SHE good current practice within the nanomaterials and nanotechnology community.

INSCX™, is designed to provide the “hub to the wheel of nanotechnologies” where the interests of business can co-exist with those of state governments, regional authorities, specialist agencies, research bodies, and consumer groups to deliver ethical and commercial cohesion across nanotechnologies.

I’m trying to figure out how AssuredNano can supply accreditation when there are no internationally accepted standard definitions for terms such as nanomaterials. (The International Standards Organization [ISO] has developed definitions but I have not seen any indication that they have been adopted as standards.) The AssuredNano site does not provide any details about their accreditation scheme, as you can see for yourself here. I hope to see more detailed information before the exhange starts in 2011.

As I noted earlier, most of the nanotechnology environmental news is focused on energy. Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) just this week announced the establishment of a new solar photovoltaic research network headquartered at McMaster University. From the news item on physorg.com,

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) announced $5 million in funding today for the establishment of the NSERC Photovoltaic Innovation Network. The Network is comprised of 29 top scientists and engineers working in the field of advanced solar cell research at 13 universities across Canada. Eleven private sector companies are also part of the network.

The Network aims to raise the status of solar photovoltaics (PV) as a renewable energy option in Canada by accelerating research and development and commercializing the outcomes.

Now on a completely different note, the sensual side of nanotechnology. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Pin-sharp projections, light that’s whiter than white, varnishes that make sounds if the temperature changes: at nano tech 2010 in Tokyo, Fraunhofer researchers present nanotechnology that is a veritable feast for the senses.

A mystical glow emanates from the display case. A white light appears out of nowhere. And a light source is invisible – at least at first glance. Only upon close examination does the source of the apparently supernatural illumination become visible: a light diode, smaller than a pinhead, passes through thousands of infinitesimal lens structures measuring only a few hundred nanometers, et voilà: beaming white light.

Nanotechnology not only puts an entirely new dimension before the eye, it also makes audible things that no ear could ever perceive before: like changes in temperature. A new varnish developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Engineering and Automation IPA ensures that surfaces emit sound if they become warmer or cool off. The trick: carbon nano-tubes embedded in the varnish that conduct electricity …

In addition to sight and sound, I have one more sense to cover, touch. From the news item, Multitouch ‘Skin’ Transforms Surfaces into Interactive Screens, on physorg.com,

The DISPLAX Multitouch Technology, believed to be the first of its kind, has been developed based on a transparent thinner-than-paper polymer film. When applied to glass, plastic or wood, the surface becomes interactive. Significantly, this new multitouch technology can be applied to standard LCD screens as well, making it an attractive choice for LCD manufacturers. The new technology will also be available for audiovisual integrators or gaming platforms to develop innovative products.

The DISPLAX Multitouch Technology dramatically extends the capabilities of the interactive format. It can be applied to flat or curved, opaque as well as transparent surfaces up to three metres across the diagonal. It is hyper sensitive, allowing users to interact with an enabled surface not just by touching it but, for the first time, by blowing on it, opening up new possibilities for future applications. Currently, the technology can detect up to 16 fingers on a 50-inch screen. The number of fingers detected is expected to increase as development progresses.

It may take a while before pure white light or varnish that you can hear comes to market but the multitouch ‘skin’ is here as a harbinger of what is to come. Offhand, I’m not sure I want to hear varnish. It seems to me that it would be like having an alarm that I can’t shut off  which means I could be confronted with any number of products that are emitting sounds because they are too hot or too cold or nearing the end of their product lives or, worse yet, malfunctioning.

Nano, wikis, and the sun

About a week or so ago, I read about a new nano wiki being proposed or developed by the International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON). This wiki is  going to focus on international best practices for environmental health and safety vis a vis nanoparticles. I’d forgotten about it until this morning when I saw some comments about the wiki on an IEEE blog.  The writer also questions whether or not council truly is international. (You can go see the comments here.) It’s a bit of a puzzle trying to get representation that’s truly international.  For example, I’ve had a proposal accepted for a presentation at the Language and the Scientific Imagination  conference in Helsinki and I’ve noticed that most of the people presenting are from the UK, a few are from Australia, and then there are assorted single presenters (Belgium, Canada, Germany). I’m willing to bet the organizer worked really, really hard and that group is as diverse as she could manage.

IBM was busy announcing some sort of advance that could reduce the costs fro solar panels (more here). Don’t know why but it reminded me of IBM’s pr stunt last year where they reproduced a famous paining (17th century, I think) of the sun. I’m being a little facetious but it does seem as if IBM wants to brand the sun.

Oh, and the British Columbia Nanotechnology Alliance is putting on a golf tournament June 19, 2008. It’s a benefit for BC Technology Social Venture Partners. You can register and get more details about the golf tournament here and about the charitable society here.