Restructuring the way perovskite solar cells are designed can boost their efficiency and increase their deployment in buildings and beyond, according to researchers with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Perovskite photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of layers of materials sandwiched together, with the top and bottom layers key to converting sunlight to electricity. The new architecture for the cells increases the area exposed to the sun by putting the metal contact layers side-by-side on the back of the cell.
“Taking the materials on top away means you are going to have a higher theoretical efficiency because your perovskite is absorbing more of the sun,” said Lance Wheeler, a NREL scientist and lead author of a new paper, “Complementary interface formation toward high-efficiency all-back-contact perovskite solar cells.”
Researchers at Duke University have revealed long-hidden molecular dynamics that provide desirable properties for solar energy and heat energy applications to an exciting class of materials called halide perovskites.
A key contributor to how these materials create and transport electricity literally hinges on the way their atomic lattice twists and turns in a hinge-like fashion. The results will help materials scientists in their quest to tailor the chemical recipes of these materials for a wide range of applications in an environmentally friendly way.
The results appear online March 15 in the journal Nature Materials.
Energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been used in our everyday life for many decades. But the quest for better LEDs, offering both lower costs and brighter colors, has recently drawn scientists to a material called perovskite. A recent joint-research project co-led by the scientist from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has now developed a 2-D perovskite material for the most efficient LEDs.
From household lighting to mobile phone displays, from pinpoint lighting needed for endoscopy procedures, to light source to grow vegetables in Space, LEDs are everywhere. Yet current high-quality LEDs still need to be processed at high temperatures and using elaborated deposition technologies—which makes their production cost expensive.
Scientists have recently realized that metal halide perovskites —semiconductor materials with the same structure as calcium titanate mineral, but with another elemental composition—are extremely promising candidate for next generation LEDs. These perovskites can be processed into LEDs from solution at room temperature, thus largely reducing their production cost. Yet the electro-luminescence performance of perovskites in LEDs still has a room for improvements.
A project to teach threatened marsupials to avoid feral cats is among a host of “assisted evolution” efforts to help animals in the face of climate change.
Technology paves way for intelligent solar cells, other highly efficient devices programmed at the macro and nano scale.
Researchers at Tufts University School of Engineering have created light-activated composite devices able to execute precise, visible movements and form complex three-dimensional shapes without the need for wires or other actuating materials or energy sources. The design combines programmable photonic crystals with an elastomeric composite that can be engineered at the macro and nano scale to respond to illumination.
The research provides new avenues for the development of smart light-driven systems such as high-efficiency, self-aligning solar cells that automatically follow the sun’s direction and angle of light, light-actuated microfluidic valves or soft robots that move with light on demand. A “photonic sunflower,” whose petals curl towards and away from illumination and which tracks the path and angle of the light, demonstrates the technology in a paper that appears today (March 12th, 2021) in Nature Communications.
AI And Robots For Law And Order — Irakli Beridze — Head, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, UNICRI – United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.
Irakli Beridze is the Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).
With a Master’s Degree in International Relations and National Security Studies, and a law degree, Mr. Beridze has more than 20 years of experience in leading multilateral negotiations, developing stakeholder engagement programs with governments, UN agencies, international organizations, private industry and corporations, think tanks, civil society, foundations, academia, and other partners on an international level.
Mr. Beridze advises governments and international organizations on numerous issues related to international security, scientific and technological developments, emerging technologies, innovation and disruptive potential of new technologies, particularly on the issue on crime prevention, criminal justice and security, and is now actively focused on supporting government’s worldwide on the strategies, action plans, roadmaps and policy papers on Artificial Intelligence.
Since 2014, Mr. Beridze has initiated and managed one of the first United Nations Programs on AI, initiating and organizing a number of high-level events at the United Nations General Assembly, and other international organizations, finding synergies with traditional threats and risks, as well as identifying solutions that AI can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Mr. Beridze is a member of various international task forces, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Artificial Intelligence Council, the UN High-level panel for digital cooperation, and the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence of the European Commission.
He frequently lectures and speaks on subjects related to technological development, exponential technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics and international security, has numerous publications in international journals and magazines and is frequently quoted in the media on the issues related to AI.
Mr. Beridze is an International Gender Champion supporting the IGC Panel Parity Pledge.
Researchers at Tufts University School of Engineering have created light-activated composite devices able to execute precise, visible movements and form complex three-dimensional shapes without the need for wires or other actuating materials or energy sources. The design combines programmable photonic crystals with an elastomeric composite that can be engineered at the macro and nano scale to respond to illumination.
The research provides new avenues for the development of smart light-driven systems such as high-efficiency, self-aligning solar cells that automatically follow the sun’s direction and angle of light, light-actuated microfluidic valves or soft robots that move with light on demand. A “photonic sunflower,” whose petals curl towards and away from illumination and which tracks the path and angle of the light, demonstrates the technology in a paper that appears March 12th, 2021 in Nature Communications.
Color results from the absorption and reflection of light. Behind every flash of an iridescent butterfly wing or opal gemstone lie complex interactions in which natural photonic crystals embedded in the wing or stone absorb light of specific frequencies and reflect others. The angle at which the light meets the crystalline surface can affect which wavelengths are absorbed and the heat that is generated from that absorbed energy.
Two types of materials are better than one when it comes to solar cells, as revealed by an international team that has tested a new combination of materials and architecture to improve solar-cell efficiency.
Silicon has long dominated as the premier material for solar cells, helped by its abundance as a raw material. However, perovskites, a class of hybrid organic-inorganic material, are a viable alternative due to their low-cost and large-scale manufacture and potentially higher performance. While still too unstable for full commercialization, they might become available to the market by 2022.
KAUST’s Michele De Bastiani and Stefaan De Wolf, working with colleagues in Canada, Germany and Italy, now show that a combination of the two is the best approach. By optimizing the material composition and the architecture of a “tandem” device, the team has achieved efficiencies beyond commercial silicon solar panels.
MIT scientists demonstrate a hair-like plastic polymer cable that can transmit data 10 times as fast as USB.
How fast does data flow? The answer: not fast enough.
The search for more efficient data-transfer solutions to meet the ever-increasing demand for computation never ends. Even today, most data transmission happens via traditional copper cables, which are power-hungry, leading to a compromise between data exchange and energy consumed. Fiber-optic cables are an alternative, but they don’t work well with the silicon chips in our computing systems. Overcoming these limitations, while theoretically possible, can turn out to be prohibitively expensive, especially for electronics-rich applications like data centers, spacecraft, electric vehicles and so on.
A team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have recently demonstrated a plastic polymer cable that is a complementary solution; it takes the best of copper wires and fiber-optics while ditching their shortcomings. Thinner and lighter than copper, this cable is capable of data transfer speeds rivaling fiber-optic threads, while being compatible with silicon chips. The team, which presented its findings at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February, reported data-transfer speeds topping 100 gigabits per second.
The aviation industry is a terrible emitter of greenhouse gases. In 2019, it emitted 918 million tons of carbon dioxide into the environment. To solve this problem, aircraft must go green. One solution is battery-powered airplanes. Battery-powered airplanes have existed for decades and with improvements in battery technology, could become widespread in the near future. However, for long-distance intercontinental flights, we will need hydrogen airplanes. Hydrogen airplanes are also very feasible and could be used with turbofan technology, producing only water as emissions.
If you enjoyed this video, please consider liking and subscribing for more videos very similar to this one!
If you enjoy Futurology, please consider supporting me on Patreon! It means the world. bigsmile https://www.patreon.com/futurology_
