A recent breakthrough in nanotechnology could make improve solar cells as well as artificial retinas. Solar cells are not very efficient, but thanks to the researchers from the Sandia National Laboratories, in Livermore, CA, they will be improved significantly as they developed world’s first carbon nanotube-based devices which can detect the entire visible light spectrum. This will lead to more efficient solar cells, and they will also be used in various applications.
“This is a significant milestone,” says George Grüner, a professor of physics and head of the Nano-Biophysics Group at UCLA who was not involved in the Sandia National Laboratories work.
Professor Grüner said these words as nobody ever managed to accomplish this task even if other nanotechnology researchers developed carbon nanotubes which detected ultraviolet light, but not the entire visible light spectrum.
According to the researchers, this breakthrough will also lead to very small cameras which will work in very low light, and of course, improved artificial retinas. Digital cameras feature a light sensor which converts light into electrical signals, and carbon nanotubes contain light sensors which will work the same for artificial retinas thanks to chromophore molecules.
Chromophores are molecules which can change shape as a response from particular light wavelengths. In order to test their carbon nanotubes, the scientists used red, green, or blue types of chromophores. These nanotube light sensors are high-resolution and tiny devices therefore they could be used in tight areas where light-levels are very low, and according to Xinjian Zhou, co-author at the research, they can be printed on flexible polymer-backings which means that they will be cheap to manufacture and will not irritate the biological tissue.
“The chromophores are engineered with grooves that stick to the nanotubes,” explained Zhou the manufacturing process of the device.
The researcher also looks to the future and he says that they are only at the beginning as for now they “only have a thin layer of chromophores now, and most of the light is not absorbed.”
Now we can only imagine what lies ahead, but the researchers predict that these carbon nanotubes will change the future of solar cells and artificial retinas, but we have to be patient.
FANTASTIC!