SBIR Phase I: Integration of Biologically-Derived Nanowire/Nanotube Materials in Photovoltaic Design

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目的重点是将生物衍生纳米线/纳米管材料整合到太阳能电池的设计中。该项目将组装一种集成了生物衍生纳米材料使用的光伏，并将在此积累的经验进一步应用于未来纳米线/纳米管光伏电池的开发。现有的商用光伏电池使用无机材料，例如硅、非晶硅或薄层砷化镓(GaAs)、磷化铟(InP)和碲化镉(CdTe)。这些制造工艺复杂，其制造设备的成本很高。纳米技术的最新发展提供了在纳米/分子尺度上控制的材料设计，为开发新的商业产品提供了替代选择。与传统的固态无机光伏相比，染料敏化的二氧化钛太阳能电池(DSC)是一种低成本、能量转换效率合理的光伏电池，它利用介孔纳米材料的高比表面积来包埋光敏剂。自组装生物系统的最新进展可能为我们提供其他替代方案，通过利用基于蛋白质或DNA的纳米/微结构来取代二氧化钛薄层。商业上，光伏(PV)或太阳能电池是一种可再生能源，与基于石油的传统能源相比，竞争日益激烈。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project focuses on integratingbiologically-derived nanowire/nanotube materials in the design of solar cells. A photovoltaic that integrates the use of biologically-derived nanomaterials will be assembled in this project and the experience accumulated herein will be further applied in the future development of nanowire/nanotube PV cells. The existing commercial PV cells use inorganic materials, e.g., silicon, amorphous-silicon, or thin layers of gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP) and cadmium telluride (CdTe). These fabrication processes are complex and the cost of their manufacture facility is high. Recent developments in nanotechnology offer material design controlled at the nano/molecular scale that provide alternative choices for developing new commercial products. Contrasted to the traditional solid-state inorganic PV designs, dye-sensitized TiO2 solar cell (DSC) is a low cost photovoltaic with reasonable energy conversion efficiency, which takes advantage of the high surface area of mesoporous nanomaterials for harboring light sensitizers. Current progress in self-assembling biological systems may provide us other alternatives to replace TiO2 thin layer by utilizing protein- or DNA-based nano/micro structures Commercially, photovoltaic (PV) or solar cells present a renewable source of energy, which is becoming increasingly competitive to the conventional counterparts based on oil.