Cornell scientists announced they made a simple solar cell from a carbon nanotube, a development that could someday up end the silicon-based solar cell industry.
The laboratory accomplishment, reported in the Sept. 11 edition of the journal Science, is at an early stage and reliability appears to be a hurdle to commercial manufacturing.
But the achievement is particular exciting because it created a remarkably efficient cell. Electrons in the device created more electrons with spare energy from the light source. A carbon nanotube is a cylindrical microstructure only 1/50,000 the width of a human hair.
The researchers used graphene to create the nanotube, which they named a photodiode. They found that higher levels of light had a multiplying affect on the amount of electrical current created.
