What if a solar cell could heal itself just like a leaf on a tree? That’s exactly what a team of researchers at Purdue University are trying to figure out in an attempt to reduce the costs associated with solar power.
Solar panels are expensive to produce and expensive to repair, so a self-healing solar cell could potentially reduce costs quite a bit. The cell would last longer and require less maintenance. And to create a solution the research team looked to plants.
“We’ve created artificial photosystems using optical nanomaterials to harvest solar energy that is converted to electrical power,” assistant professor Jong Hyun Choi told ScienceDaily. These cells would regenerate continuously. “This sort of self-regeneration is done in plants every hour.”
The process uses engineered DNA, which combines with a dye found in the solar cells, allowing it to self-repair just like a leaf. However, the research is still in its early stages, and could potentially be too expensive to produce on an industrial scale.
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