PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD | Table of Contents: |
Scientists have repeatedly tried to mimic a plant's ability to perform photosynthesis—the conversion of sunlight into a useful fuel—but so far, the best they have come up with are conventional solar cells. Unfortunately, sunlight causes today's solar panels to deteriorate over time.
Manufacturers have made solar cells longer-lived by using inorganic materials, such as silicon and gallium-arsenide, which resist damage from sunlight. The next generation of plastic solar cells is being delivered at a lower cost, but, unfortunately, at the expense of even faster deterioration in sunlight. In fact, some new solar cells can deteriorate as much as 10 percent after just 60 hours of exposure to the sun, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Now MIT claims to have found a way to extend the lifetime of
man-made solar cells by adapting nature's techniques.
A self-assembling solar cell (inside the glass cylinder)
uses two electrodes, one made of platinum (the bare wire) and the other of
silver (in the glass tube) (source: Patrick Gillooly).
Nature's renewable energy efforts have been ongoing for millions of years, evolving a variety of strategies for maintaining the health of plant life with self-repair mechanisms that anticipate damage. By periodically disassembling its photosynthesis engine into its components, disposing of damaged elements and replacing them with fresh ones, a plant's photosynthesis capabilities can be continually optimized.
MIT professor Michael Strano did not copy the exact chemicals used by plants for photosynthesis, but instead created a similar cyclical mechanism. By creating a set of molecules that can self-assemble into a solar conversion unit, but which can also be quickly broken down into their component parts, the unit can be periodically reassembled into a refurbished solar cell.
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