Do you remember when I wrote "Vacationing in the 21st century: it's becoming hard to get some rest"?
Well, it looks like some researchers want to ruin your next vacation. They want you to bring your PDA or your laptop during your next trip to Hawaii. They think you'll go to the beach or the volcanoes not fearing about their batteries -- because of the sun.
When batteries run low, these tools become little more than excess baggage.
But what if you could power portable electronics anywhere you could access solar energy? That's the scenario Paul Alivisatos and Janke Dittmer imagined. The two researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have developed a new generation of solar cells that combine nanotechnology with plastic electronics.
The hybrid solar cells consist of tiny nanorods (composed of a material similar to that used in computer chips) suspended in plastic. The mixture is sandwiched between two electrodes, one composed of transparent plastic and the other of flexible aluminum.
Combining the flexibility of plastics with the electronic properties of inorganic semiconductors resulted in a cell with myriad potential uses.
For example, the new cells also open up possibilities for wearable computing devices. "Because of their flexibility, it would be possible to put solar cells on clothing to power small computer processors," says Dittmer.
You can still enjoy your computer-free vacation for a while. These plastic-based cells are still several years away.
Source: Justine Brown, CIO Magazine, August 15, 2002
6:18:13 PM
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