Slashdot Mirror
Self-Assembling Photovoltaic Cells
dhj writes "MIT scientists have developed a self-assembling photovoltaic cell in a petri dish. Phospholipids (think cell membranes) form disks which act as the structural support for light responsive molecules. Carbon nanotubes help to align the disks and conduct electricity generated by the system with 40% efficiency. The assembly process is reversible using surfactants to break up the phospholipids. When filters are used to remove the surfactants the system reassembles with no loss of efficiency even over multiple assembly/disassembly cycles. The results were published September 5th in Nature Chemistry."
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/09/07/0424217/Self-Assembling-Photovoltaic-Tech-From-MIT
To be tossed in the same boxes as "may lead to a cure for obesity" or "may lead to breakthrough in cancer treatment."
Wake me when I can buy it at Wal-Mart, and if there's a penny stock or investment opportunity, I'm not interested.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
That is new progress or you can say a new dimension of science.
Ok, it's our job to recycle the conversation. I'll start with the first comment from the last article (but recycled into a new comment): Call me when I can pick it up at Lowe's.
I would like to be the first to welcome our new Photovoltaic overlords...
They are talking about flourescent fat and detergent, right?
One of the problems with solar that no one seems to talk about is the system is limited by the size of the southern facing roof on a house. In the case of desert power generation, a large amount of land is required. If solar cells can make the leap from 12% efficiency to 40%, this will change everything. Your roof installation will be able to produce a much more meaningful amount of power especially in the context of trying to run air conditioning during day light hours. More importantly, the same applies for many malls, warehouses, factories, etc. At 12% efficiency, the roof of a mall is simply too small to generate enough power to be off the grid during the day. The amount of land required per MegaWatt will drop considerably. At 40% efficiency solar starts to become a much more viable option.
I HAAAAVVVVEEE THEEEEE POOWWWWWERRR!!!
Eat that Skeletor! You and your stupid coal-based technology will be the death of you.
In Soviet Russia, self-assembling photovoltaic cells develop you.
Its all well and good, but do you think manufacturing anything with exotic toxic materials, mass produced and distributed as we have done with plastics, hygiene products (how much shampoo do we flush into our drinking water each day?), etc is really the answer?
I'm going to watch the last whale die, sterile, ear drums blown out from ship engine noise, a gut full of oil/plastic, and blood laced with flame retardant chemicals. I'm 30, I already have outlived more species than I even comprehend to have existed.
I don't see very much hope, making all of these things just makes it worse and worse, what's the point after awhile?
Every solution is dumping another layer on top of all the layers of toxic crud our ancestors made before us, there's going to be 9 billion people soon. What would it take from our planet, and our kids to mass produce self assembling photovoltaic cells and put them into 9 billion hands? There's no star trek future for us, because we're going to run out of energy and materials for creation. If we don't, all our forefathers naive mistakes which capitalism pushed globally are going to poison us all anyways. Y'know our dolphins are now legally flame retardant? Heh, brilliant monkeys we are, lets pat ourselves on the back one more time.
I believe we have to make things 100% organic, our forefathers stupidity in globally spreading their half-assed attempts at molecular manipulation has potentially fatally poisoned this planet. These molecules do not break down, they will poison my children as they poison me.
I see kids with freakish mutant allergic reactions which are fatal. I see test scores dropping, our heads nearly blowing off with stress and commercials telling us to go pay someone to tell us we're nuts, not the world and here take a pill because that'll make it better I'm sure.
This isn't an answer, self assembling photovoltaic cells, amazing. Can't be built at home, cannot be created from off the shelf components, contains toxic elements, cannot be broken down. Why should I give a damn that they were able to do something complicated but still fundamentally flawed?
First, California is far from a typical location when it comes to solar radiation. The same setup up north would be multiples of that size, plus all you are doing is matching 100% of the load, but over a 24 hour period, you only get 30-40% of the rated output. So don't forget those batteries and the expensive inverters.
For decades I've been hearing about these miracle solar cells that will be available "real soon now", but they are all based on this precious technology to make them smaller and more efficient. Why the overwhelming focus on efficiency? Better to focus on manufacturability. The current cells are incredibly fragile and fussy, so they get put on the roof, which makes everything more complicated - efficiency is then inordinately important, maintenance and installation are more complicated, and nobody will be admiring that NASA hardware cluttering up the neighborhood. So let's come up with a solar cell that is 1% efficient, but that can be laid by the truckload like asphalt or cement. Imagine if we could tap solar power from our driveways, patios, and streets? Get it off the roof. Maybe make a net that can overlay a grass lawn and handle typical lawn use? Overcome the precious nature of current solar cells with a simple system that can make up for those disadvantages by being ubiquitous.
Title pretty much says it all. I'm not interested in "cheap" and "easy" and "free" energy or anything else if it's not going to ever make it to market. As it is, despite several years of "breakthroughs" in solar power, if you went out today to get solar installed for your home, you would be using 1980s era technology at thousands of dollars per KW.
Wake me up when I can actually buy any of this.
I'd prefer some magic beans that grow a space elevator.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff