Do you know somthing called ´black silicon´?
A newly discovered material called ‘black silicon’ is between 100 and 500 times more sensitive to light than conventional silicon, and could be used to revolutionize solar energy generation.
The material was discovered when a team of Harvard University scientists shone an ultra-powerful laser (briefly producing the same amount of energy as the sun falling on the entire surface of the Earth) on a silicon wafer, before adding sulphur hexafluoride. The result was a silicon wafer that looked black to the naked eye, but when examined under an electron microscope turned out to be covered with a massive amount of ultra-tiny spikes. So maybe it is a new and better posibility to win much more energy from the sun but it will also depend on the production cost of the black silicon.
1/08/2009
What is Black Silicon?
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3 COMMENTS:
Black silicon sounds promising. I,ve always been fascinated by solar power. Remember as a child I would stand in front of the jewelry store window and watch a tiny wheel turn in a vacumn tube when the sun hit it (forgot what those things were called). Lets hope the black silicon leaves up to expectations.
Good blog, I'll have to return when I have more time to really check it out. Black silicon seems to hold promise according to you. I will have to look into the possibilities.
Black silicon is a promising discovery. Hope it could make a difference to improve the world's energy generation.
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