Biosolar cells
Shuguang Zhang, the associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering, said that bringing down the cost of solar cells on a global scale will be essential to securing the future of energy production. His lab is working on a process to create low-cost biosolar cells.
"Nature has already made efficient photosynthesis molecular nanomachines in thermophilic photosynthetic bacteria, algae, and plants. We can isolate or emulate them to stabilize them in extended time onto inexpensive semiconducting nanostructured surface in extremely high density to directly harvest photons. This process must be simple, easy to follow and affordable even for developing nations," Zhang wrote.
Shown here is a schematic illustration of some of Zhang's biosolar work.
Photo by MIT/Susan Dove/CNET Networks
Caption by Stefanie Olsen
