A project by a department chair and students in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science may change the way solar energy is harvested.

Radhakrishna Sureshkumar, professor and chair of the biomedical and chemical engineering department, has been working since last spring on developing nanoparticle technology that would improve the efficiency of collecting solar energy. Working alongside Sureshkumar were graduate students Tao Cong, Satvik Wani and Peter Paytner and undergraduate students Elia Baszczuk and Georo Zhou.

The team’s work was published in July and presented at a conference in August. The team created a stable solution of nanoparticles that can be applied to solar cells and glass windows, like a paint, to increase the efficiency of the materials, Sureshkumar said.

‘It’s an enabling platform that would hopefully, in the immediate to near future, make devices that capture energy from the sun better,’ Sureshkumar said.

The team has now filed a provisional patent through Syracuse University, which gives them a year to build the technology to its fullest potential before filing for a full patent, Sureshkumar said. The team is also working on using the solution for glass windows to be used in buildings, he said. The project is being funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The main challenge of working with nanoparticles, Sureshkumar said, is trying to suspend them in a way that allows them to remain stable and consistent throughout a mixture. Most of the time, nanoparticles will clump together at the bottom, he said. To stop this from happening, the team used ‘soapy molecules’ to create a net to hold the nanoparticles in place.

‘It works for any kind of nanoparticle we have tried yet,’ he said. ‘We make the correct surfactant combination, shake them together and allow it to settle.’

Using this method keeps the nanoparticle shelf life much longer than previous versions; the mixture can last up to a few weeks instead of a few minutes.

Sureshkumar said focusing on making homes more energy efficient is important. So the team is working on applying the solution to smart glass to try to increase the efficiency of windows.

‘We talk about automobiles all the time in terms of cost of fuel and emissions, but buildings are one of the major sources of consumption of energy, so if we can make them more efficient, through this kind of mechanism, there is going to be a direct impact,’ he said.

Sureshkumar said he believes that the world is in a state of crisis right now and what is done in the next 20 to 30 years will shape the future. Sureshkumar said in the past 10 years, energy has become a big ticket item, and scientists have been focusing on how to improve energy efficiency within its limits.

‘If you could capture all the energy in the atmosphere, it could power the planet for a very long time. Whichever way you look at the world, the energy is there, but how do you harness it?’

Sureshkumar said even if he personally doesn’t develop a better solar cell in the future, he has faith that someone else will and that his research will be helpful.

medelane@syr.edu

Published on September 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani