Photovoltaics in the Energy Industry and Nanotechnology

Photovoltaics in the goose egg Industry and NanotechnologyNanotechnologyThe field of nanotechnology dates back to the later(a) 1950s when theoretical physicist Richard Feynman gave his famous talk cal conduct Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom. In his talk, he introduced the concept of the control and manipulation of objects i.e. atoms, molecules, at a minute scale. It was K. Eric Drexler who popularised the term nanotechnology after using it in the title of his concord Engines of Creation The Coming Era of Nanotechnology. The term nanotechnology kitty be delimit as the science of studying very small things or in some other words studying things at the nanoscale (1-100nm).During the latter part of the twentieth century increasing advances in microscopy technology much(prenominal) as SFM, AFM and TEM allowed scientists to spate nano members. A particles properties bang-uply changes when the particle is in the nanoscale range. This is due to the Quantum Effects phenomena. P roperties such as melting point, fluorescence, electrical conductivity, magnetic permeability, and chemical reactivity ar vastly altered as the size of it of a particle reaches the nanoscale. As a result of the quantum effects that occur at this scale, a temporals properties gage be tuned to give a desired property by changing the size and shape of the particle. There argon however many other parameters that affect a materials properties these will be run short more(prenominal) unornamented later.A simple example where a materials properties change with reducing size to the nanoscale is that of the element grand. To the human eye gold appears to be a color colour while nanoscale gold a reddish colour is observed. This is as a result of the previously mentioned quantum effects, in this case the electrons of nanoscale gold particles are trapped (confined) and as a result react differently with unclouded giving a different colour. This trapping of electrons property (quantum confinement) will save discussed later.As a result of the many desirable properties that are play in nanomaterials, numerous industries and fields alike occupy and are underdeveloped applications incorporating nanotechnology. The previously mentioned example of gold nanoparticles are utilised within a bite applications of the medical fabrication. Biomedical applications for laser phototherapy, therapeutic agents as healthy as drug carriers have all been developed using gold nanoparticles. 1The previously stated property of plusd reactivity that occurs at the nanoscale relates to another specific property nanomaterials attain. As the size of a particle decreases the surface area increases. This increase in surface area has a profound effect on the reactivity betwixt materials i.e. greatly raise reactivity. A number of different applications benefit from this nanoscale property including applications relating to the vitality manufacturing such as catalysts, naught storag e and energy spiritual rebirth devices.Nanotechnology has led to fabrication of novel devices and equipment and also many applications in a mannequin of fields none more so than the energy industry. Although several strides have been made in recent years in new technologies in the energy, current technologies cannot cope with man kinds ever increasing demand for energy. Therefore, on that point still remains a need to develop new sustainable energy technologies without detrimentally effecting the environment. Many leading experts in the energy industry believe that nanotechnology is the way forward to nurseing these energy issues. 2,3Photovoltaics in the Energy Industry Nanotechnology has in recent decades been hold backd into a number of technologies in the energy industry that utilise solar radiation as an energy source. Exploiting the suns energy is by far one of the most suitable ways out of all the renewable energy resources that exist for a number of reasons. Solar energ y is free and basically limitless as solar energy provides approximately 15,000 times more energy in a year than is actually needed to meet the worlds current energy demands. 2According to a 2014 renewable energy report by Eurostat the standard of renewable energy produced by EU member states increased by 73.1% between 2004 and 2014. Despite this increase only 16% of the EUs total energy consumption was from the renewable energy sector. The majority of the rest of the energy that was consumed came from fogey can based energy sources. Of the total renewable energy consumed, solar energy accounted for only 6.1% of total amount. These statistics highlight the improvements have been made in incorporating renewable energy, but also highlight the potential there is to fuse more solar based renewable energy. 3The need to incorporate more renewable energy and replace existing fossil fuel based energy resources such as coal, gas and oil stems from their blackball environmental impact. T he ever increasing global temperatures are directly relating to uprise CO2 levels, this is in part is as a result of the increase in the consumption of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution and peaking today in the early 21st century.The lack of utilisation of solar energy technologies such as photovoltaics (The 2014 GSR report indicates only 1.2% of global electricity achievement comes from photovoltaics) despite it being free and its wide abundance is largely due to represent. 4 It is the main reason why photovoltaic devices have failed to become more mainstream especially in comparison to non-renewable based energy sources whos cost per Watt of electricity are generally lower. The price of electricity produced from photovoltaics has sure enough decreased in recent years as outlined in the Renewables 2016 Global Status Report. Prices in Germany for photovoltaic electricity have been quoted to be as low as 0.08/kWh which is comparable to the equivalent price of lifelike gas. Despite this figure the costs of photovoltaic electricity can be further be reduced with continued advances in its technologies.Electricity is produced in PV solar cellular phones by conversion of photons from the light harnessed from the sun, otherwise cognise as the photoelectric effect. Traditionally PVs are fabricated using atomic number 14 wafer based solar cells. These wafers comprised of crystalline silicon are generally between 150-300 nm in thickness and these largely remain the main material in PV fabrication today. A variation to these PV devices includes utilising semiconducting thin films on top of complimentary silicon wafers. This method is a much more cost effective method but suffers from poor photon to electricity conversion rates. 2The integration of nanomaterials specifically nanocrystals in the fabrication PV devices can curb some of the limitations that currently exist. First, the ability to control the energy bandgap provides flexibility and inter-chan geability. bite nanostructured materials enhance the effective optical path and significantly decrease the opportunity of charge recombination. Thirdly and most significantly solar cells utilising nanocrystals have shown great potential as a low cost alternative to formulaic solar cells. Solution based synthesis methods such as the colloidal method has a relatively straight forward process. The solution containing nanocrystals can easily and efficiently be incorporated into a solar cell using a number of low cost deposition techniques. As well as these facts copper based nanocrystals have attracted a flock of attention due to their abundance and low cost, which further emphasises the probability of nanocrystals alternate conventional solar cells. depend 1 below provides contrasting schematics of the conventional silicon based solar cells against the new generation of solar cells.Figure 1. Conventional vs Nanostructured Solar cells.2