Physicist uses both light and heat for electricity
Spring 2013 · Comment ·
Associate Professor Wei Chen has created a way to generate electricity that is less expensive and better for the environment than its alternatives.
Dr. Chen and his team invented a hybrid nanomaterial that converts light and thermal energy into electrical current, thus surpassing earlier methods that used either source but not聽both.
鈥�If we can convert both light and heat to electricity, the potential is huge for energy production,鈥� he says. 鈥淏y increasing the number of micro-devices on a chip, this technology might offer a new and efficient platform to complement or even replace current solar cell technology.鈥�
Chen, graduate students Santana Bala Lakshmanan and Chang Yang, and Louisiana Tech Associate Professor Long Que synthesized a combination of copper sulfide nanoparticles and single-walled carbon nanotubes, which they then used to build a prototype thermoelectric generator that they hope will produce milliwatts of power. Paired with microchips, the technology could be used in self-powering sensors, low-power electronics, and implantable biomedical micro-tools.
In lab tests, the new thin-film structure showed increases in light absorption by as much as 80 percent compared to single-walled nanotube thin-film devices alone, making it a more efficient generator. The copper sulfide is also less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the noble metals used in similar hybrids.
The journal Nanotechnology has published a paper on the researchers鈥� work.