GMR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
Solar energy plays a major role in present days. It is renewable source of energy. This presentation is about the new type of solar cell. It is 5 times efficient than conventional solar cells.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology is about building things atom by atom, molecule by molecule. Nanotechnology is billionth of a matter. It is defined as the study of functional structures with dimensions in the range of 1-100 nanometer.

Working of solar cell

These are photovoltaic (PV) cells based on crystalline silicon. It absorbs visible sunlight and transferred to the semiconductor material. This energy knocks electrons to flow freely, which results current. Current is drawn from the metal contacts in PV cell.

FIGURE SHOWING THE WORKING OF SOLAR CELL

Why Nanotechnology in solar cell

The conventional solar cells are less efficient. Their efficiency is very poor in cloudy days. To overcome above problems, A new type of solar cell embedded with NANOTECHNOLOGY is developed, which is INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELL.

Division of sunlight

INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELL

A plastic solar cell can turn the suns power into electric energy even on a cloudy day.

It uses specially designed nano particles called quantum dots.

QUANTUM DOT

The quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the infrared.

QUANTUM DOT LAYER

INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELL

This plastic material can harness the suns invisible infrared rays. These plastic solar cells can be taken everywhere. It reduces the need to PLUG IN for power.

WORKING OF PLASTIC SOLAR CELL

It requires semiconductor nanorods (7 nm by 60nm).

The heart of a solar cell is a 200-nm-thick film.

It consists of cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanorods and blended with P3HT(poly-3hexylthiophene).

 A layer only 200 nanometers thick is sandwiched between electrodes. It can produce 0.7V at present

Aluminium coating acts as the back electrode .

When nanorods absorb light they generate an electron and an electron hole. Electron is collected by alluminium electrode. The hole is transferred to the plastic and conveyed to the electrode, creating a current.

IMPROVEMENTS
Better light collection and concentration employed in the solar cells. In plastic cells nano rods are closely packed and transfer their electrons more directly to the electrolyte. They also hope to tune the nano rods to absorb different colors to span the spectrum of sun light.

APPLICATIONS
Telecommunication systems:

Radio transceivers on mountain tops, or telephone boxes in the country can often be solar powered.

Hydrogen powered car:

Hydrogen car painted with the film could convert solar energy into electricity to continually recharge the cars battery

 Coating the cell :

Chip coated in the material could power cell phone A couple of drops if the titanium dioxide suspension is then added. The slide is then set aside to dry for one minute.

Ocean navigation aids:

Ocean navigation aids: many lighthouses and most buoys are now powered by solar cells.

ADVANTAGES
These are considered to be 30% more efficient. Their efficiency is same even on cloudy days. These are very compact and more practical in application. These cells avoids effects like pollution. Fabrication is easy.

LIMITATIONS
They are very costly. Relatively shorter life span when continuously exposed to sunlight. It requires higher maintenance and constant monitoring.

CONCLUSION
Plastic solar cells help in exploiting the infrared radiation. More effective when compared to conventional solar cells. They can even work on cloudy days. Though at present cost is a major drawback, it can be solved in the near future.

REFERENCES

1.Introduction to Nanotechnology:Charles P Poole,Frank J Owens 2.Nanomaterials:synthesis,properties and applications:Edelstein, A.S.cammarata 3.Solar energy-fundamentals, design, modeling, applications : G.N.Tiwari