英语科普小知识 用树木制作可回收太阳能电池.docVIP

Solar cells are just like leaves, capturing the sunlight and turning it into energy. Its fitting that they can now be made partially from trees. Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells using natural?substrates（基底）derived from plants such as trees. Just as importantly, by fabricating them on cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) substrates, the solar cells can be quickly recycled in water at the end of their lifecycle. ? The technology is published in the journal Scientific Reports, the latest open-access journal from the Nature Publishing Group. ? The researchers report that the organic solar cells reach a power conversion efficiency of 2.7 percent, an unprecedented figure for cells on substrates derived from renewable raw materials. The CNC substrates on which the solar cells are fabricated are optically transparent, enabling light to pass through them before being absorbed by a very thin layer of an organic semiconductor. During the recycling process, the solar cells are simply immersed in water at room temperature. Within only minutes, the CNC substrate dissolves and the solar cell can be separated easily into its major components. ? Georgia Tech College of Engineering Professor Bernard Kippelen led the study and says his teams project opens the door for a truly recyclable, sustainable and renewable solar cell technology. ? The development and performance of organic substrates in solar technology continues to improve, providing engineers with a good indication of future applications, said Kippelen, who is also the director of Georgia Techs Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE). But organic solar cells must be recyclable. Otherwise we are simply solving one problem, less dependence on fossil fuels, while creating another, a technology that produces energy from renewable sources but is not disposable at the end of its lifecycle. ? To date, organic solar cells have been typically fabricated on gla