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Week 1- Solar Panel

During my first week in Nanotechnology and Design, there were many fascinating inventions. The invention that stood out to me the most was technology that enhanced solar panels through the usage of nano structuring. A short recap of how the conventional technology enhanced the performance of solar panels is due to it molecular structure of a villi formation. Similar to how our intestines track is constructed. The idea of having a microscopic tubular structure is to increase the surface area. This is return allows more light to be contained inside a solar cell.
However, there is a big problem with the contemporary solar panels. From the research Northwestern University has claimed, conventional solar panels only absorb 14% of energy contained in a sunlight. “Most solar panels on people's houses, for example, are fairly inefficient. Less than 14% of the energy that reaches them will be converted to electricity.”. This raises the problem of effectively enhancing our current day technology regarding to solar panels. From my research, the lost of energy comes directly from the lack of containment of the electrons in the solar layers (TED talk). However, to enhance the performance of solar panels only requires us to look into a new nanotechnology development. The Vantablack project.
The images above may be deceiving to the naked eye in thinking that there was a hole in from of the man or a photoshop trick of an outline of a man. However, the true nature of this material absorbs 99.96 percent of all light. This return can be the pillar of inspiration to creating a solar panel which absorbs more than the average amount today.
From the image displayed above, Vantablack has many components similar to the conventional solar cell structures, However, a simple solution can be found when observing the molecular structure of Vantablack. Instead of relying completely on the surface alone, the carbon structure allows light to enter but to be trapped in the multilayer of the structure itself. In return, this material seems black due to the lack of light reflecting off the surface. The cylindrical tubular structure also allows for optimal absorption within any angle of light which can be effective as our sky is also emits diffused light from the light waves that are scattered within our atmosphere.

To conclude my weekly note, I understand that there are more complications to building solar panel besides just the structure itself. For example the Vantablack does have its benefits to absorb energy and light, consequently, heat will also be contained as well. Although the carbon based structure does have a high threshold for heat, crystalline silicon may not withstand such high temperature… Although there seems to be many pros and cons to this idea, I believe that this idea can be further inspected and tested for positive outlook to what nanotechnology can proved for the future.


Works Cited
Crew, Bec. "This Object Has Been Sprayed With The World's Blackest Material, And It's Freaking Us Out." ScienceAlert. N.p., n.d. Web.
How Does Solar Panels Work? - Richard Komp. TED-ed, 5 Jan. 2016. Web.
Locke, Susannah. "How Does Solar Power Work?" Scientific American. Scientific American, A Division of Nature America, INC., 20 Oct. 2008. Web.
"Power System." How Efficient Are Solar Panels? N.p., n.d. Web.
The World's Blackest Material - An Inside Look At Vantablack. BuzzFeedBlue, 8 July 2016. Web.


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