The promise of having the windows of a building generate solar power has been held out for some time. Its fulfilment required the development of a new kind of transparent electronic component. (“Transparent Electronics: a Solar Energy Breakthrough”, 19 June 2009, Alternative Energy website, Accessed 14 May 2010) The Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork, in a Europe wide collaborative project, may have found the answer.
Solar Power Generation and Electronic Components
There are two types of transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), negative (n-type) and positive (p-type). Successful n-type TCOs have been available for some time but their application to photo-voltaic solar power generation has required p-type TCOs in order to complete the circuit. Transparent electronic components also offer the possibility of integrating the display and processing components of a device like a lap-top, e-reader or mobile phone.
As recently as February 2009 Professor Graeme Watson of Trinity College Dublin noted that “Designing p-type TCOs with good conductivity [is] a major goal for materials scientists.” (“Transparent conducting oxide research”, Trinity College Dublin website, Tcd.ie, accessed 14 May 2010). It might have taken years to reach that goal using the traditional “trial and error” approach in a laboratory. But using computer simulation the Irish researchers were able to complete the work in a matter of months.
The project, named NATCO (Trt.thalesgroup.com) which stands for Novel Advanced Transparent Conductive Oxide, was co-ordinated by Dr Guy Garry of Thales, a French engineering company and involved the Greek company FORTH, Umicore a materials specialist based in Belgium and another French organisation, GeMac as well as Tyndall. It was funded by the European Union’s “Future and Emerging Technology” programme.
Range from Infra-red to Ultra-violet
The Tyndall team devised a set of design rules by simulating how different elements affect the transparency and conductivity of copper oxide. These rules were then applied to a variety of other TCO materials in order to find the optimum solution. This, it was found, was barium-doped strontium copper oxide.
This material was then synthesised by Umicore, who produced pellets of the material. FORTH used lasers to slice thin films from these pellets. GeMac, FORTH and Tyndall then measured the characteristics of the material. These confirmed the modelling predictions and showed a range of transparency from infra-red to ultra-violet. Conductivity was shown to be competitive with current TCOs.
Well Run Collaborative Project
The funders believe the project is an example of what a well run collaborative project can achieve. The Tyndall project leader Dr Mircea Modreanu believes that having industrial partners on board at the outset means they are able to take advantage of new discoveries. The team is already investigating a follow-on project to build on the success of NATCO. (“New materials for see-through electronics”, UCC website, Ucc.ie,11 May 2010, accessed 14 May 2010)
Frank Parker - Frank writes regularly on a diverse range of subjects which he researches thoroughly.
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