Solar nanowires
Building off of Tomas’ post on nanowires and the cool stuff they can do, we see a letter to Nature discussing the possibility of nanowires that can be powered by the sun, thereby requiring no external power source. Supposedly, these nanowires would be more efficient than a crystal in creating electricity from solar energy.
(via Ars Technica) (image from Inexpressible is possible)
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:03 am
a really fascinating possible use for nanowires! It makes sense based on how semiconductors work but imagine a macro-sized net of nanowires absorbing sunlight - a huge amount of potential power. Even if you couldn’t scale it up, combining this development with simple nano interfaces and devices could be a great saving of energy - it wouldn’t work for human sized stuff but certain use gadgets would be excellent.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I think the biggest problem would be the same as with solar calculators - in a dim room or at night, they don’t work so well.
The article discusses applications like generating electricity in solar arrays, or sun-powered computers.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Jeremy-
I am looking for a Jeremy Eades that once lived in South Carolina???
October 24th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Sorry, Sarah, that’s one of the states I’ve never even been to. Didn’t realize that either of the names was that common.