Skip to main content

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.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

week3- Edward Kil- Nanotechnology

This week in Nanotechnology I have learned the process of developing a circuit board. The circuit board is constructed with three layers, Copper, being the most important material within the three layers. Copper is a conductor which acts as a passageway for the electrons. The layers above the coppers helps with the process of masking which aids the masking process for the copper to develop its shape. For those who are familiar with the new development of circuit boards, it is not a surprise that copper is the main source of tracer within a circuit board. Nowadays, the conventional copper trace is around 35um. And anything smaller can cause a lot of problems due to the molecular structure not being able to support the thinness of the copper trace. This made me ask myself a question relating to Nanotechnology. Can nanotechnology be able to solve this problem? If so how?. To tackle my question, I had to surf around the vast knowledge of the internet and gather myself some info...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 8 Post- Regenerative

For this weeks Nano Tech, I decided to research on self regenerating nano material with the combination of stem cell research for prosthetic purposes. I decided this idea would be interesting as I see many articles and innovation about the single topic listed above, but never the combination to cater to the prosthetic users. Over the past years, many popular media has shun interested in prosthetic robotic limbs. We will see from time to time, a movie/ game character who has a robotic limb that he or she can control through the use of technology. Most likely by connecting the nervous system to a computer system that recognizes the instructions from the brain. But I have been wondering if that is really the route we should aim for. To propose my idea, I must say that as of yet, this idea seems to be far from reach. There is yet many problems to solve to this day in the stem cell and nanotechnology studies. But what if there can, one day, be a prosthetic that does not require th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week-5 Post NanoTech.

This week in Nanotechnology, we had study the idea of hydrophobic materials. The idea that nature has provided for scientist to be inspired by. This in return has allowed Scientist to study the molecular structures to help them better understand why some materials are hydrophobic. In recent years Scientist have discovered that the idea of hydrophobic qualities and how to incorporate them into the field of nanotechnology. Some inventions such as the Never Wet sprays coats a layer of hydrophobic chemical allows for an object to be waterproof or even dirt proof. The image above is can show an example of these types of sprays. Just apply the spray and get wet. So I thought to myself, about the application of hydrophobic sprays and how I can bring an addition that no one has thought of.  It made me realize that none of these hydrophobic sprays were geared towards human protection. Just clothes, windshield or maybe a phone. My mother is a chef at her own restaura...
Post a Comment
Read more