University researchers claim to have found a way of channeling solar energy directly into electrical appliances without the need for conventional solar panels.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say they have efficiently turned light into electricity using fibre-optic cables that have been attached to solar cells.
The system uses fibre optics of the type used by the telecommunications industry and covers them with zinc oxide nanowires to increase their surface area. The nanowires are then coated with dye-sensitised solar cells that convert light to electricity.
The researchers said that sunlight entering the optical fibre passes into the nanowires, where it interacts with the dye molecules in the cells to produce an electrical current.
They added that the cells are inexpensive to manufacture, flexible and mechanically robust. While they are currently less efficient than the silicon-based cells used in traditional solar panels, this can be countered by using the nanostructure arrays to increase the available surface area, making them in practice six times more efficient than conventional solar panels.
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