Quantum Dots As Energy Sources
The University of Milan-Bicocca (UNIMIB) in Italy, and the US Department of Energy’s Los Alamo’s National Laboratory(LANL), led by Victor Klimov at the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics (CASP), have teamed up over the past two years to develop a new technique that produces nanoparticles, or “semiconductor quantum dots,” in windows to produce solar energy. A paper published in Nature Photonics details the findings.
In what will be a boon to architects and engineers seeking to create carbon neutral buildings, Quantum Dots absorb sunlight as it passes through the newly-designed window panes, emitting an infrared wavelength that is captured at the window’s edge and transformed into energy. Quantum Dots are versatile and low-cost nanocrystals and are perfect for what is called “luminescent solar concentrators,” or LSCs.
According to Klimov, these new windows should be able to “power your room’s air-conditioner on a hot day or a heater on a cold day.”
The following video shows the technology under development.
