Every efficiency gain discovered in the lab feeds through to the final cost of electricity. Anne Trafton at MIT describes new research looking at how electrons and protons couple at an electrode surface, which drives electric current. It’s a critical step in many energy technologies, including fuel cells, hydrogen electrolysers, batteries, and CO2 conversion into chemical fuels. The first step was to develop a way to design electrode surfaces … [Read more...]
New solar cell allows a photon to release two electrons, not just one
In conventional silicon-based solar cells, each photon of light can only knock loose a single electron, creating electricity. That’s even if the photon carries more than enough energy to do so. One hammer, one nail. Now, for the first time researchers at MIT and Princeton University in the U.S. have got high-energy photons to strike silicon and kick out two electrons instead of one, opening the door for a new kind of solar cell with greater … [Read more...]