Charging your cell phone through your shirt

Modern society is built on portable electronics, and with these power-hungry pieces of technology comes the need for convenient charging. To mitigate the need to find power outlets, a team at the University of Central Florida, lead by Jayan Thomas, created a ribbon which both harvests solar energy and stores it within a single unit. Remarkably, the technology is able to be woven with other … Continue reading Charging your cell phone through your shirt

Hybrid Solar Cell with Higher Efficiency

In a finding that appears in the journal Nature Materials (original article here), researchers demonstrate efficient energy harnessing using a hybrid solar cell. Specifically, they show ultrafast energy transfer between an organic molecule (made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms) and an inorganic semiconductor (made of atoms other than carbon and hydrogen). Normally, absorption of one photon or particle of light by a solar cell … Continue reading Hybrid Solar Cell with Higher Efficiency