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Old Posted Nov 7, 2013, 7:49 PM
amor de cosmos amor de cosmos is offline
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Quote:
Big beats bolster solar cell efficiency
Playing pop and rock music improves the perfomance of solar cells, according to new research from scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London.

Wednesday 6 November 2013

The high frequencies and pitch found in pop and rock music cause vibrations that enhanced energy generation in solar cells containing a cluster of ‘nanorods’, leading to a 40 per cent increase in efficiency of the solar cells.

The study has implications for improving energy generation from sunlight, particularly for the development of new, lower cost, printed solar cells.

The researchers grew billions of tiny rods (nanorods) made from zinc oxide, then covered them with an active polymer to form a device that converts sunlight into electricity.

Using the special properties of the zinc oxide material, the team was able to show that sound levels as low as 75 decibels (equivalent to a typical roadside noise or a printer in an office) could significantly improve the solar cell performance.

“After investigating systems for converting vibrations into electricity this is a really exciting development that shows a similar set of physical properties can also enhance the performance of a photovoltaic,” said Dr Steve Dunn, Reader in Nanoscale Materials from Queen Mary’s School of Engineering and Materials Science and co-author of the paper.
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/116312.html
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