Gold, titanium and tin oxide hold great expectations for solar panels of the future. Silicon solar panels used today lose much of the potential energy beamed by the sun as these are not able to absorb infrared rays which account for more than 50 percent of solar energy received on the earth. However, making solar energy competitive with other energy sources now seems possible with a newly developed technology. It’s about embedding a nano-antennae into the silicon of the panel.
Made of gold, titanium and tin oxide, these tiny antennae can capture infrared light. Scientists say that they still have a way to go with optimizing the current design for increased efficiency. They hope, all the same, that the principle should work. And the principle is that when the infrared light from the sun hits the antenna, it generates a hot electron, which jumps from the antenna into the silicon, creating a current.
Since present silicon solar cells cannot convert approximately 1/3 of the infrared wavelengths to electricity, the innovative panel should be able to harvest a fraction of this currently unused part of the solar spectrum. This could revolutionize the home solar market. To make it viable, lower-cost metals and less expensive large-area patterning processes are being developed. When that big problem with current solar cells is solved, the new technology could break free of the lab bench and make its way to local home improvement stores.
Via: io9
