Energy Problems to come to a Screeching Halt?: Silver Nanocubes could Revolutionize Solar Energy. - Polidicks

[img]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/12/121206153644-large.jpg[/img] [quote="Article"]These are the nanocubes.[/quote] [quote="Article"]Microscopic metallic cubes could unleash the enormous potential of metamaterials to absorb light, leading to more efficient and cost-effective large-area absorbers for sensors or solar cells, Duke University researchers have found. Metamaterials are human-made materials that have properties often absent in natural materials. They are constructed to provide exquisite control over the properties of waves, such as light. Creating these materials for visible light is still a technological challenge that has traditionally been achieved by lithography, in which metallic patterns are etched onto an inert material, much like an ink-jet printer. As effective as lithography has been in creating such structures, it does have a limitation -- it is very expensive and thus difficult to scale up to the large surface areas required for many applications. "Our new approach is more of a bottom-up process," said Cristian Ciracì, research scientist at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. "It may allow us to create devices -- such as efficient solar panels -- that cover much larger areas. In our experiments, we demonstrated an extraordinarily simple method to achieve this." The results of Ciracì and co-workers' experiments, which were conducted in the laboratory of senior researcher David R. Smith, William Bevan Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, were published Dec. 6 in the journal Nature. For many applications or devices, the key is the material's ability to control the absorption of electromagnetic waves. Metals, for example, can be highly reflective on their own, which may be beneficial for some applications, but for something like a solar cell, optimal light absorption is desired. "However, metamaterials based on metallic elements are particularly efficient as absorbers because both the electrical and magnetic properties of the material can be controlled by how we design them," Ciracì said. The new metamaterial developed by the Duke team has three major components -- a thin layer of gold film coated with a nano-thin layer of an insulator, topped off with a dusting of millions of self-assembled nanocubes. In the current experiments, the nanocubes were fabricated out of silver. "The nanocubes are literally scattered on the gold film and we can control the properties of the material by varying the geometry of the construct," Ciracì said. "The absorptivity of large surface areas can now be controlled using this method at scales out of reach of lithography." While metals on their own tend to have reflective properties, the nanocubes act as tiny antennae that can cancel out the reflectance of the metal surface. "By combining different components of the metamaterial elements together into a single composite, more complicated reflectance spectra could be engineered, achieving a level of control needed in more exotic applications, such as dynamic inks," Ciracì said.[/quote] Source: [url="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121206153644.htm"]Science Daily[/url] What do you guys think? Also, sorry if this is late.

You see, THIS is why we should continue developing green energy, and not cut funding simply because it's not efficient enough yet.

That headline feels like an application of Betteridge's law of headlines. It probably is.

I think I read something about this a while ago. Sensationalist title, though. In order to provide reasonable quantities of electricity to 8+ billion people (moreso now since oil is not so viable for transportation anymore) more than one energy alternative will need to be pursued, solar can't pick up all the slack no matter how far it gets taken. I think wind, hydro, nuclear, geothermal, tidal, etc will all need to be taken advantage of if all of societies energy problems are gonna get taken care of. [editline]7th December 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=stewe231;38735018]You see, THIS is why we should continue developing green energy, and not cut funding simply because it's not efficient enough yet.[/QUOTE] "Aw, but I want it [I]nowwwwww[/I]"

[QUOTE=hypno-toad;38735039]I think I read something about this a while ago. Sensationalist title, though. In order to provide reasonable quantities of electricity to 8+ billion people (moreso now since oil is not so viable for transportation anymore) more than one energy alternative will need to be pursued, solar can't pick up all the slack no matter how far it gets taken. I think wind, hydro, nuclear, geothermal, tidal, etc will all need to be taken advantage of if all of societies energy problems are gonna get taken care of. [editline]7th December 2012[/editline] "Aw, but I want it [I]nowwwwww[/I]"[/QUOTE] Why can't it? Solar being absorbed extremely rapidly could charge a battery at near instantaneous rate which could keep a car powered for however long. There's tons of sunlight and we're not using anywhere near all of it.

[QUOTE=stewe231;38735018]You see, THIS is why we should continue developing green energy, and not cut funding simply because it's not efficient enough yet.[/QUOTE] Really we shouldn't be cutting funding to any type of advance research. Solar, wind, etc may not be that effective. But considering how it was almost non-existent (at least the market was) several years ago really show how far it has gone. Plus normally new discoveries are found while working on a specific goal which will lead to newer things. This is how I look at it, if we don't research or try to improve - we will never get better. But no matter what the end results after research, failure or success there is always something learned which will lead to more and more studies.

[QUOTE=MR-X;38735083]Really we shouldn't be cutting funding to any type of advance research. Solar, wind, etc may not be that effective. But considering how it was almost non-existent (at least the market was) several years ago really show how far it has gone. Plus normally new discoveries are found while working on a specific goal which will lead to newer things. This is how I look at it, if we don't research or try to improve - we will never get better. But no matter what the end results after research, failure or success there is always something learned which will lead to more and more studies.[/QUOTE] Absolutely. I fully believe we should develop all different kinds of energy, and phase out coal, which is the most inefficient of the fossil fuels. The only reason we even still use coal is because we have a ton of it. At least there has been a bigger push towards natural gas in the recent years. It's kind of the least terrible fossil fuel. (Coal produces around twice as much Co2 as Natural Gas if I remember correctly). But eventually, I hope we get completely off fossil fuels and can use nuclear, wind, solar, and maybe one day Fusion. Problem with Geothermal and hydroelectric energy is that it's very location based, so it can be wonderful for some, but useless for most.

[QUOTE=stewe231;38735174]Absolutely. I fully believe we should develop all different kinds of energy, and phase out coal, which is the most inefficient of the fossil fuels. The only reason we even still use coal is because we have a ton of it. At least there has been a bigger push towards natural gas in the recent years. It's kind of the least terrible fossil fuel. (Coal produces around twice as much Co2 as Natural Gas if I remember correctly). But eventually, I hope we get completely off fossil fuels and can use nuclear, wind, solar, and [B][U]maybe one day Fusion.[/U][/B] Problem with Geothermal and hydroelectric energy is that it's very location based, so it can be wonderful for some, but useless for most.[/QUOTE] One can only dream. Also I wouldn't say useless for most. If we decided to mass implement hydroelectric energy I'm sure we would create some massive reservoirs of water in areas that using it would be useless. However that would take far more effort than just using other green energies.

Normally when a headline asks a question, the answer is invariably no. But this actually sounds promising.

[QUOTE=MR-X;38735083]Really we shouldn't be cutting funding to any type of advance research. Solar, wind, etc may not be that effective. But considering how it was almost non-existent (at least the market was) several years ago really show how far it has gone. Plus normally new discoveries are found while working on a specific goal which will lead to newer things. This is how I look at it, if we don't research or try to improve - we will never get better. But no matter what the end results after research, failure or success there is always something learned which will lead to more and more studies.[/QUOTE] I fully agree to your statement. The gained knowledge not only leads to more studies, sometimes even small accidents can lead to new and unexpected findings. Hopefully these nanocubes enhance our current technology. It may be able to solve a lot of our problems.

Now what happens if we make these nanocubes, out of carbon nanotubes?

[QUOTE=stewe231;38735018]You see, THIS is why we should continue developing green energy, and not cut funding simply because it's not efficient enough yet.[/QUOTE] You mixed it up. What is seen as impractical is to build these facilities, and then subsidies the entire industry when they're not efficient yet. Funding the research is a different story.