Energy Harvesting Turning light into electricity using smart gold nanotechnology

Material scientists at the Nano/Bio Interface Center of the University of Pennsylvania in the USA have demonstrated the transduction of optical radiation to electrical current in a molecular circuit.  The system, an array of nano-sized molecules of gold, respond to electromagnetic waves by creating surface plasmons that induce and project electrical current across molecules, similar to that of photovoltaic solar cells.

The results may provide a technological approach for higher efficiency energy harvesting with a nano-sized circuit that can power itself, potentially through sunlight.  Recently, surface plasmons have been engineered into a variety of light-activated devices such as biosensors. (see my blog post from last week)

It is also possible that the system could be used for computer data storage.  While the traditional computer processor represents data in binary form, either on or off, a computer that used such photovoltaic circuits could store data corresponding to wavelengths of light.

Because molecular compounds exhibit a wide range of optical and electrical properties, the strategies for fabrication, testing and analysis elucidated in this study can form the basis of a new set of devices in which plasmon-controlled electrical properties of single molecules could be designed with wide implications to plasmonic circuits and optoelectronic and energy-harvesting devices.

Scientists speculate:

"If the efficiency of the system could be scaled up without any additional, unforeseen limitations, we could conceivably manufacture a one-amp, one-volt sample the diameter of a human hair and an inch long,"

Walter Derzko,

Smart Economy, Toronto

 Author of the soon-to-be published book- Opportunity 45 Scenarios to Drive Your Business in Challenging Times,  published by J. Wiley and Sons

ISBN13: 978-0-470-73761-3

ISBN10: 0-470-73761-1

 

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