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Not Transparent Aluminum, But Conductive Plastic

Posted by Soulskill on from the see-through-power-generator dept.

michaelmalak writes "Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory have fabricated transparent, thin films capable of absorbing light and generating electric charge over a relatively large area. The material, described in the journal Chemistry of Materials (subscription required), could be used to develop transparent solar panels or even windows that absorb solar energy to generate electricity. The material consists of a semiconducting polymer doped with carbon-rich fullerenes."

6 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Application: Skyscrapers by suso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds like this would be great for skyscapers, where you have huge windows all the way up and direct sunlight for long periods of the day.

    1. Re:Application: Skyscrapers by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      These would be great in windows, but I don't see why it should be limited to windows, since it's a coating that could be applied to all sorts of things.

      A covering for housing siding, for example, or attached to roofing sheets. Something like this, if it ends up being cheap (and it should, it's a super simple process to make - the trick was getting the chemical solution right), would have a lot more applications than just in windows.

      Cross your fingers, I say.

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
  2. Coming soon by pooh666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    to a manufacturer in China..

  3. Great idea by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is the kind of implementation that actually makes sense. You don't need dedicated hardware or real estate to set it up. Granted northern exposure probably would work but put this stuff all over southern exposure windows in a whole city and tie it all onto the grid. It's akin to not using food crops for biofuels. Algae and switch grass make more sense.

    Now the big key is getting the cost per kilowatt down where it's competitive with traditional power generation. And of course you really need a large scale storage system. I remember a Popular Science article about giant underground flywheels.

  4. Re:The invisible man would be blind by Raleel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the question is, transparent to what, really. If it's opaque to everything _except_ human-visible light, that's still a pile of the spectrum and of energy.

    --
    -- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
  5. if its transparent how does it absorb? by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How can a transparent thing absorb a large fraction of the energy? This sounds like an oxymoron.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.