Altered Organism Triples Solar Cell Efficiency 158
An anonymous reader writes "By harnessing the shells of living organisms in the sea, microscopic algae called diatoms, engineers have tripled the efficiency of experimental dye-sensitized solar cells. The diatoms were fed a diet of titanium dioxide, the main ingredient for thin film solar cells, instead of their usual meal which is silica (silicon dioxide). As a result, their shells became photovoltaic when coated with dyes. The result is a thin-film dye-sensitized solar cell that is three times more efficient than those without the diatoms."
120% efficiency! (Score:2, Interesting)
So, with the "breakthrough" a few months ago that three different dyes in a cell could capture 40% of light from the sun, does that make this more efficient than coal?
Could the ecomentalists finally have something to cheer about?!
an industrial waste angle. (Score:5, Interesting)
3 times what? (Score:2, Interesting)
Triple efficiency of what? I was only able to find this paragraph that put some numbers.
Dye-sensitized solar cells are favored as a thin-film material because they work in low-light conditions and are fabricated with environmentally benign materials compared to silicon solar cells. However, silicon cells have more than twice the efficiency, as much as 20 percent compared to less than 10 percent for dye-sensitized solar cells.
So Are we talking about 3x 20%? One could only wish. I think they mean 3x 10%, so 30% efficency, which is only 50% better than silicon solar cell. I guess that's still a big improvement.
Re:an industrial waste angle. (Score:2, Interesting)
What gets done with that sort of thing currently?
I wonder.. (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder what effect this will have on evolutionary processes in the diatoms.
How will they respond to the titanium dioxide in an evolutionary context?
Re:When can I buy them? (Score:5, Interesting)
You don't have to buy them. You can get titanium dioxide from donuts [hackaday.com] and use that to enhance your solar cells.
Our food really is filled with crap!
Re:an industrial waste angle. (Score:1, Interesting)
Silicon dioxide is sand. It's hard to compete with the price of something that is literally dirt cheap.
Rutile and Leucoxene are two of the primary components of heavy mineral sand (eg. the magnetic black and at some beaches). The other main component of those sands is Ilmenite which is basically a compound of iron oxide and titanium oxide.
Seems like a good comparison to "dirt cheap" to me.
Biology - Underutilized (Score:3, Interesting)
Dr. Alexander Shulgin [wikipedia.org] talks about something similar [cognitiveliberty.org], making a mushroom take care of his work.
However there is a very interesting study that took place in Leipzig about 15 years ago. Jochen Gartz, a mushroom explorer whom I know quite well, has done some fascinating studies with Psilocybe species by raising them on solid media containing strange tryptamines that are alien to the mushroom. Apparently the enzymes that are responsible for the 4-hydroxy group of psilocin are indifferent to what it is they choose to 4-hydroxylate. He has taken things like DPT or DIPT and put them in the growth media and the fruiting bodies that came out contain 4-hydroxy-DPT or 4-hydroxy-DIPT instead of psilocin.
Re:120% efficiency! (Score:3, Interesting)
How long does it take to make a new sun? I mean...it will run out eventually...
Let there be light. [multivax.com]
6-10% (Score:5, Interesting)
30 seconds of googling reports that dye cells currently produce around 6-10%. If you can triple that, it makes a really good solar cell. If you can do that and keep costs low, it makes a great solar cell.