When you are close to a developing technology such as solar, or phones for instance, it's hard to see the impact of breaking developments. If however you step back and look where the technology has come from and where it's going, a pattern emerges that shows a stead state progression toward higher efficiency and lower cost over time. http://en.wikiped...ar_cell.
For this experiment, gold nanorods were capped with a layer of crystalline titanium dioxide decorated with platinum nanoparticles, and set in water. A cobalt-based oxidation catalyst was deposited on the lower portion of the array.
Gold, cobalt, platinum? Does seem a bit expensive if one were to scale it up. I'm thinking that replacing these materials with less costly ones might impact the efficiency/stability in a negative way.
grondilu
Feb 24, 2013