Vad händer
Ett amerikanskt forskningsprojekt använder molekyler i plantor för att utveckla solpaneler och ge dem ökad effektivitet och minskad storlek.
Kontext
Biological photovoltaics (biophotovoltaics, BPV) är teknologier som fångar ljus och genererar elektricitet via syresatta fotoautotrofiska (typ biologiska) organismer.
The concept, which is being designed by University of Maryland researcher Lahari Saha, adapts plants’ energy making abilities to electricity and then uses their fluorescence, or light giving properties, to transfer that power to a storage system.
“Any sort of molecule that fluoresces, gives off light. If we excite the fluorophore, it can transfer its energy to metal nanoparticles, and if the particles are close enough to each other, they will knock off electrons and generate current,”
Renew Economy: Plant power promises to shrink solar panel size, grow output, in new research
Vad har det för betydelse
Mindre men mer effektiva solpaneler innebär lika mycket elektricitet på mindre yta. Dessutom blir materialåtervinningen smidigare och mer effektiv.
Men…
Tekniken är i sin linda och det finns en mängd utmaningar innan detta kan produceras industriellt och användas i stor skala.
Molecules such as chlorophyll a and b, those found in plants and studied by Saha, are very unstable when faced with light, heat, chemicals, moisture. In short, they degrade quickly when faced by everything they encounter outside a lab.
Renew Economy: Plant power promises to shrink solar panel size, grow output, in new research
Mellan raderna
The plant-power field is a growing area of interest for environmentally-minded scientists, however.
There’s biophotovoltaics which are devices that use enzymes or photosynthetic proteins to turn light into electricity. Dye-sensitised solar cells use a dye molecule usually based on a natural pigment like chlorophyll to do the same. Organic solar cells use organic molecules, while biohybrid solar cells use both biological and non-biological components.
Renew Economy: Plant power promises to shrink solar panel size, grow output, in new research
