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One longstanding knock on the usage and implementation of solar power is its binary nature of always being on or off. To make practical use of it in non-peak times, some sort of storage system for the energy would have to implemented also. Well, this nut may have finally been cracked. According to UCLA, their chemists at the university have developed cells that can store energy for weeks.
The two components that make the UCLA-developed system work are a polymer donor and a nano-scale fullerene acceptor. The polymer donor absorbs sunlight and passes electrons to the fullerene acceptor; the process generates electrical energy. The plastic materials, called organic photovoltaics, are typically organized like a plate of cooked pasta — a disorganized mass of long, skinny polymer "spaghetti" with random fullerene "meatballs." But this arrangement makes it difficult to get current out of the cell because the electrons sometimes hop back to the polymer spaghetti and are lost.
The have obviously been touched by the FSM's noodly appendage. Ramen..
They also claim that the materials in the new system self-assemble and are environmentally friendly because they do so in water instead of more toxic solutions commonly used. Abstract of original paper at Science.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday June 24 2015, @05:02PM
Iodine. No kidding.
http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140207/srep04033/full/srep04033.html [nature.com]
google around for "liquid organic photovoltaics" and "ionic liquid electrolyte" and stuff like that.
Iodine isn't that toxic (well, compared to worse stuff) and there wouldn't be much of it, but it does corrode everything pretty well. Also doesn't mix well with ammonia.
This whole class of technology is deep in the "worked once in a lab" level, not quite "complete panels shipping from China on Amazon" level.
Aside from the storage bit, the rather optimistic hope is rather than using a silicon substrate you'd basically paint on a cell. But the paint would probably be like printer ink cost if not higher. Probably. Or maybe not.
(Score: 1) by Gorb on Wednesday June 24 2015, @10:52PM
Hmmm.... Iodine and Ammonia KABLOOWIE! :)
(Ahhh... The stories I could tell!)
Is it wrong to have sexual fantasies about cartoon characters?