![]() ![]() ![]() Many approaches to creating low-cost, large-area flexible and lightweight solar cells suffer from serious limitations-such as short operating lifetimes when exposed to air, or the need for high temperatures and vacuum chambers during production. The new work represents a significant leap in overcoming those limitations, increasing the current flow in the cells and thus boosting their overall efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. Since the first progress toward the use of quantum dots to make solar cells, Bawendi says, "The community, in the last few years, has started to understand better how these cells operate, and what the limitations are." These minuscule particles are very effective at turning light into electricity, and vice versa. The new process is an extension of work by Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry, to produce quantum dots with precisely controllable characteristics-and as uniform thin coatings that can be applied to other materials. The development is described in a paper, published in the journal Nature Materials, by MIT professors Moungi Bawendi and Vladimir Bulović and graduate students Chia-Hao Chuang and Patrick Brown. While the overall efficiency of this cell is still low compared to other types-about 9 percent of the energy of sunlight is converted to electricity-the rate of improvement of this technology is one of the most rapid seen for a solar technology. ![]()
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