Exclusive Research-Critical Trends

From Solar Industry, April 21, 2011, by SI Staff:  

"Following a year of favorable market demand growth (139%), PV cell manufacturers have embarked upon aggressive expansion plans in support of ambitious shipment guidance for this year. Consequently, the scale of expansions announced is creating a $15.2 billion revenue opportunity for PV equipment suppliers this year - an increase of 41% year over year (Y/Y), according to a new report from Solarbuzz."

Source:  

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Solar Industry: http://www.solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.7750 

Nano-research Opens Way to Everlasting Battery 

From RMIT University News, June 22, 2011: "In a crucial step towards the development of self-powering portable electronics, RMIT University researchers have for the first time characterised the ability of piezoelectric thin films to turn mechanical pressure into electricity.

The pioneering result has been published in the leading materials science journal, Advanced Functional Materials.

Lead co-author Dr Madhu Bhaskaran said the research combined the potential of piezoelectrics - materials capable of converting pressure into electrical energy - and the cornerstone of microchip manufacturing, thin film technology.

"The power of piezoelectrics could be integrated into running shoes to charge mobile phones, enable laptops to be powered through typing or even used to convert blood pressure into a power source for pacemakers - essentially creating an everlasting battery," Dr Bhaskaran said.

"The concept of energy harvesting using piezoelectric nanomaterials has been demonstrated but the realisation of these structures can be complex and they are poorly suited to mass fabrication.

"Our study focused on thin film coatings because we believe they hold the only practical possibility of integrating piezoelectrics into existing electronic technology."

Source: Click the link to read the full article:

RMIT University:  http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=x7phmev409181 

Image: Daniel J. White

From University of Houston, June 15, 2011: "A University of Houston (UH) chemist who is developing materials for detecting and repelling E. coli has published papers in two high-impact journals this month.

Rigoberto "Gobet" Advincula, a polymer chemist, says he and his colleagues have developed two different materials that are both equally effective against E. coli. He discusses the findings in the June issues of Chemical Communications (ChemComm) and Chemistry of Materials.

The ChemComm paper, Advincula says, describes a graphene material that is proving to be an effective antimicrobial, while the research appearing in the journal Chemistry of Materials uses a conducting polymer that can repel E. coli. He says his team has created a smart film that not only can be used to turn bacterial adhesion on and off, but also may be used for detecting bacteria. The work was done in collaboration with Debora Rodrigues and her group from UH's department of civil and environmental engineering.

 Prolific in inventing new and smart materials such as these, Advincula has compiled an impressive record as a leading polymer, thin films and nanomaterials researcher. In addition to these most recent publications, three other papers were cover stories in top journals in April. In May, he released a new book with Wolfgang Knoll of the Austrian Institute of Technology titled "Functional Polymer Films" that Advincula considers to be akin to an encyclopedia on polymer thin films."

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University of Houston: http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2011articles/June2011/061511AdvinculaFellowEcoli.php  

Image: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

From Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel,
March 22, 2011: "A breakthrough in the study of chemical reactions during etching and coating of materials was achieved by a research group headed by Kiel physicist, Professor Olaf Magnussen. The team from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU), Germany, in collaboration with staff from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, have uncovered for the first time just what happens in manufacturing processes, used for the formation of metal contacts thinner than a human hair in modern consumer electronics, such as flat-screen television. The results appear as the cover feature in the current issue (23.3.2011) of the renowned Journal of the American Chemical Society.

For their research the scientists used the intense X-ray radiation of the experimental station ID32, one of the ESRF's instruments. The X-ray beam was directed onto a gold surface while it dissolved in diluted hydrochloric acid. Because the reflected X-rays are sensitive to tiny changes in the atomic arrangement at the material's surface, the metal removal during the reaction can be precisely measured. "Such studies were only possible during very slow changes of the material so far", Olaf Magnussen explains. To gain insight into the fast reactions going on in industrially employed processes the speed of the measurements had to be increased more than a hundredfold. Even during very fast etching the removal of the metal proceeded very uniformly. "The material dissolves quasi atomic layer by atomic layer, without formation of deeper holes", Magnussen remarks. In a similar way, the team could follow the attachment of atoms during the chemical coating of materials."

Source: Click on the link to read the entire article:

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zo Kiel: http://www.uni-kiel.de/aktuell/pm/2011/2011-027-aetzend-schnell-geroentgt-e.shtml 

Image: J. Golks  

From Chemical & Engineering News, May 23, 2011,
by Jillian N. Kemsley: "Moments before the magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocked Japan on March 11, a smaller tremor led members of Tohoku University chemistry professor Hiromi Tobita's group to evacuate their eighth-floor laboratory. Earthquakes being fairly common in Japan, Tobita didn't think much of it. Then, with everyone in the hallway, the big one hit.

Eighty miles east of the earthquake epicenter, the swaying building felt like a roller coaster, Tobita says. "It was impossible to keep standing without holding a wall or other thing," he adds. "The electricity stopped and the hallway became dark. The smell of chemicals and dust started to fill the hallway," making it hard to breathe as glassware and instruments crashed to the floor and cabinets and fume hoods tore from the walls. Tobita heard hissing coming from an instrument room-a hydrogen gas cylinder for gas chromatography had fallen to the floor and was leaking. He managed to shut the door but couldn't move from the area."

"Similar scenes played out in other universities and research facilities across Japan that day in March. How much damage was done depended largely on location, with some facilities facing many months of repairs. Elsewhere, infrastructure damage delayed the start of classes, and continuing electricity shortages are hindering research activities. And the sheer scope of the damage across Japan-including the need to rebuild or repair housing and roads-means that when universities and other institutions will get manpower, parts, and money is an open question."

Source: Click the link to read the full article. 

Chemical & Engineering News: http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/89/8921cover1.html  

From SPIE, May 19, 2011: "As the importance of renewable energy sources grows, the development of highly efficient solar cells is increasingly gaining relevance. Today, the most efficient laboratory prototypes for photovoltaics are based on thin-film multilayered structures. These cells have 40% solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency, which is well below the theoretical limit of ∼87% and leaves considerable room for improvement. However, the design of multilayered solar cells can be complicated, and they are susceptible to changes to their operational conditions, such as the cell temperature or the power of the incident sunlight. Hot-carrier solar cells (HCSCs), which offer simplicity of design and greater conversion efficiencies, are an attractive alternative to the multilayer approach. 

Heat production is detrimental to the output of solar cells. It occurs when a material absorbs photons with energies larger than its bandgap. To circumvent this problem, photogenerated charge carriers must be collected through specially designed contacts that are energy-selective. Carriers with large kinetic energies-'hot carriers'-reach these contacts before losing most of their energy as heat. In principle, efficiencies as high as 86% could be achieved. However, since hot carriers normally transfer their kinetic energy to the material in subpicosecond times, the collection through contacts should be fast. This could be achieved under high concentrations of incoming sunlight, the so-called high-injection regime. By the same token, under these conditions, a drop in the cell's output voltage takes place, and changes in the cell's temperature interfere with photocurrent collection and heat extraction. Microstructuring HCSCs could help to tackle this problem: it enables these devices to reach electric current densities of ∼kA/cm² without a significant decrease in their output voltages."  

Source: Click the link to read the full article. 

SPIE:  http://spie.org/x48151.xml?ArticleID=x48151  

Image: SPIE