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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday June 24 2015, @04:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the battery-operated-solar-cells dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by snick on Wednesday June 24 2015, @05:34PM

    by snick (1408) on Wednesday June 24 2015, @05:34PM (#200482)

    Note to self: don't use quotation marks in the subject

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @07:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @07:53PM (#200550)

    ???

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday June 24 2015, @09:01PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday June 24 2015, @09:01PM (#200596) Journal

      Try Preview, and you'll notice. Looks like a bug in Rehash.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @11:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2015, @11:35PM (#200657)

        Using double quote marks in in Subject lines of comments is now problematic.
        Anything after the double quote mark (to include the mark) get blanked (apparently ONLY if you use the Preview page).

        e.g. You responded to a comment where it seems the GP posted without previewing.
        You didn't alter the Subject line and all that made it through was the Re:.

        I've been using double apostrophes (and bitching about this occasionally).

        It's only been a short time that this has been a problem.

        -- gewg_