Solar cell efficiency may get 175% boost with cheap plastic. We cross our fingers.

Electrical engineering team from Princeton has discovered the future in cheap, readily available plastic which the researchers believe can boost the solar cell efficiency almost 3x. In their experiments, the team led by Stephen Chou used a nano-structured sandwich comprising of plastic and metal which collects and traps light. Chou's research worked aimed at solving the two big problems associated with conversion of light energy into other useful forms of energy - reflection of light from solar cell and inability of the cell to efficiently capture and convert the light energy.

[caption id="attachment_44165" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Diagram courtesy of the Chou lab[/caption]

The new metal-plastic sandwich, which the researchers call "subwavelength plasmonic cavity" is able to address both these problems by dampening the reflection of light and trapping it inside. The structure developed reflects only 4% of the light and is able to absorb almost 96%. The overall boost it gives to the efficiency solar cell is about 52% more than the conventional cells. Chou says that this value holds true for the direct exposure to sunlight. His system exhibits even greater efficiency when the light falls on the cell at wider angles (for example, during cloudy days). The overall efficiency boost team has achieved is about 175%.

We hope that the technology gets into mainstream as soon as possible. We impatiently look forward to a day when our Galaxy S VI will be charged directly by the solar power, no cables attached.

Via: #-Link-Snipped-#