White butterflies as solar photovoltaic concentrators.
White butterflies as solar photovoltaic concentrators.
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DOI：
10.1038/srep12267
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发表时间：
2015-07-31
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Mallick TK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shanks K;Senthilarasu S;Ffrench-Constant RH;Mallick TK
人类收集光伏能源需要部署大量的太阳能电池板阵列。为了改善从太阳收集热能和光伏能的能力，我们研究了粉蝶科白蝴蝶的仿生学概念。我们测试了这样一个假设：晒太阳的白蝴蝶的 V 形姿势模仿了 V 形槽聚光器，该聚光器旨在增加光伏电池的太阳能输入。这些太阳能聚光器提高了收集效率，但又重又庞大，严重限制了它们的部署。在这里，我们展示了将蝴蝶翅膀附着在太阳能电池上后，其输出功率增加了 42.3%，证明翅膀确实具有高反射性。重要的是，相对于现有的聚光器，机翼将整体结构的功率重量比提高了 17 倍，极大地扩展了其潜在应用。此外，从蝴蝶翅膀上去除的单个单层鳞片细胞保持了这种高反射率，这表明单层鳞片细胞状结构也可以形成有用的涂层。正如预测的那样，翅膀显着提高了蝴蝶胸部的温度，这表明白蝴蝶的 V 形晒太阳姿势确实已经进化到可以提高起飞前飞行肌肉的温度。
Man’s harvesting of photovoltaic energy requires the deployment of extensive arrays of solar panels. To improve both the gathering of thermal and photovoltaic energy from the sun we have examined the concept of biomimicry in white butterflies of the family Pieridae. We tested the hypothesis that the V-shaped posture of basking white butterflies mimics the V-trough concentrator which is designed to increase solar input to photovoltaic cells. These solar concentrators improve harvesting efficiency but are both heavy and bulky, severely limiting their deployment. Here, we show that the attachment of butterfly wings to a solar cell increases its output power by 42.3%, proving that the wings are indeed highly reflective. Importantly, and relative to current concentrators, the wings improve the power to weight ratio of the overall structure 17-fold, vastly expanding their potential application. Moreover, a single mono-layer of scale cells removed from the butterflies’ wings maintained this high reflectivity showing that a single layer of scale cell-like structures can also form a useful coating. As predicted, the wings increased the temperature of the butterflies’ thorax dramatically, showing that the V-shaped basking posture of white butterflies has indeed evolved to increase the temperature of their flight muscles prior to take-off.