MIT uses live virus to transform carbon nanotube solar cells

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said that living viruses can be used to mount highly conductive carbon nanotubes in the positive electrode structure of dye-sensitized solar cells, which can improve the cell efficiency by almost three points. one.

A dye-sensitized solar cell is a photoelectrochemical system made of a semiconductor element material located between a photosensitive positive electrode and an electrolyte. Titanium dioxide covered with dye absorbs sunlight and releases electrons into the positive electrode. Then those electrons will be collected to drive the load and then returned to the electrolyte via the cathode, and so on. MIT researchers said that by intertwining carbon nanotubes and positive electrodes with viruses, the conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells can be increased from 8% to less than 10.6%.

The research team was led by MIT professor Angela Belcher and included Ph.D. students Xiangnan Dang and Hyunjung Yi, and two other professors Paula Hammond and Michael Strano.

Belcher had previously confirmed a virus called M13 that could stimulate the "hydrogen economy" and spawn thin-film batteries. The team's latest research results, for the first time, use viruses to separate the nanotubes inside the solar cell to avoid the nanotubes agglomerating or causing a short circuit. Each virus can adsorb 10 nanotubes in a region of about 300 peptide molecules, and then the engineered virus secretes a titanium dioxide coating.

If this new technology lab can succeed, the nanotube-enhanced solar cell will be able to enter the 2011 market with an estimated $156 billion worth of microbiological technology products. According to the forecast of BCC Research, a market research institution, the market size can grow to more than US$259 billion in 2016.

The so-called microbiological technology products include natural yeast, brewed beer, and M13 genetically engineered micros, such as those developed by MIT.

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