Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US have grown zinc oxide nanostructures on optical fibres and coated them with dye-sensitised solar materials. From this, they developed a new type of 3D photovoltaic system.
This approach could allow photovoltaic technology to be concealed from view and installed away from traditional locations, such as on rooftops.
"Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. "Optical fibre could conduct sunlight into a building's walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell."
Details of the research were published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International, 22 October, 2009.
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Date Published: November 04, 2009
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