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Altered Organism Triples Solar Cell Efficiency
An anonymous reader writes "By harnessing the shells of living organisms in the sea, microscopic algae called diatoms, engineers have tripled the efficiency of experimental dye-sensitized solar cells. The diatoms were fed a diet of titanium dioxide, the main ingredient for thin film solar cells, instead of their usual meal which is silica (silicon dioxide). As a result, their shells became photovoltaic when coated with dyes. The result is a thin-film dye-sensitized solar cell that is three times more efficient than those without the diatoms."
So does this mean we now have to call them dye-atoms?
Don't bother throwing things...I've already taken cover.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
So, with the "breakthrough" a few months ago that three different dyes in a cell could capture 40% of light from the sun, does that make this more efficient than coal?
Well, it doesn't take millions of years to make more when we run out.
From toothpaste to DE Filters to solar cells.
I love nature - if mankind paid more attention to it we'd be so much more advanced than we are currently.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
How long does it take to make a new sun? I mean...it will run out eventually...
-=Bang Bang=-
From an energy standpoint, direct solar has ALWAYS been more efficient than coal. How much sunlight do you think was needed to create the coal we burn? How much energy do we use to extract and refine it (when necessary)?
More cost-effective? That's a different matter, and impossible to calculate since we can't even properly measure the true costs of burning coal for electricity.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Diatoms that generate electricity... great! Who's in charge of soldering the leads to them so we can harness it ?
titanium dioxide is the main pigment base in modern (but not pre-70's) white paint. While titanium is not a particularly cheap metal, paint chips are something that is actually hard to get rid of. I wonder if they could be fed on waste drywall stripped from homes. that's basically paint, paper, and gypsum.
I got er. I just keep them loose all over the place, help yourself.
free range Hydrogen
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It wasn't even an argument...I was being wholly pointless. Jeez, a new "super efficient solar cell of the month" story comes around and everyone puckers their sphincters like they're about to be exposed to the vacuum of space...
-=Bang Bang=-
Do the diatoms die from shock?
"even the PETA retards aren't that rabid"
Wanna bet? :-p
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
I wonder what effect this will have on evolutionary processes in the diatoms.
How will they respond to the titanium dioxide in an evolutionary context?
Did anyone else notice that the article didn't bother to compare the solar cells with, I don't know, other solar cells? They didn't talk about efficiency compared to any other existing method of making solar cells, except for the exact same methodology minus the diatoms.
Sounds like they are "fishing" for some more funding. Oh yes I can.
In tripling the efficiency of the not-so-good ones, did they bring them within cost parity of the better ones? If the better ones were four times as good and cost four times as much, and now these are three times as good at double the cost, then that's a significant breakthrough.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
You don't have to buy them. You can get titanium dioxide from donuts and use that to enhance your solar cells.
Our food really is filled with crap!
30 seconds of googling reports that dye cells currently produce around 6-10%. If you can triple that, it makes a really good solar cell. If you can do that and keep costs low, it makes a great solar cell.