Authored by Greg Watry, www.rdmag.com
Though capable in laboratory settings of achieving 25% efficiency, commercially produced silicon solar cells typically reach levels between 13% and 14%.
Challar V. Kumar, of the Univ. of Connecticut’s Dept. of Chemistry, unveiled an edible and digestible light antenna capable of increasing the efficiency of commercial solar panels. He presented his findings at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Simply put, the process uses an edible protein (bovine serum albumin) and mixes it with a fatty acid from coconut oil. When warmed, the combination forms a gel, made up of around 95% water. The gel is mixed with four dye molecules, allowing the substance to absorb the blue, green and yellow regions of the solar spectrum and emit in the red region. Thus, low-energy photons can successfully be used for electrical currents.
Read more: http://bit.ly/1FgocGx
I mean, this is cool, but I feel like this is a solution to a problem that we don’t really have… People aren’t skipping solar because it’s “not efficient.”
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