Self-assembling solar cells built using ancient wisdom, modern technology
By Vlad Savov 
posted January 15th 2010 9:14AM
posted January 15th 2010 9:14AM
Alright, so self-assembling electronics are hardly new in and of themselves, and nanoscale tech tends to always come with bombastic promises, but you don't wanna miss how this latest innovation is built. Two professors from the University of Minnesota have successfully demonstrated a self-assembly technique that arranges microscopic electronic elements in their proper order thanks to the absolute enmity that exists between water and oil. By coating elements with a hydrophilic layer on one side and some hypdrophobic goo on the other, they've achieved the proper element orientation, and the final step in their work was the insertion of a pre-drilled, pre-soldered sheet, which picks up each element while being slowly drawn out of the liquid non-mixture. The achievement here is in finding the perfect densities of water and oil to make the magic happen, and a working device of 64,000 elements has been shown off -- taking only three minutes to put together. If the method's future proves successful, we'll all be using electronics built on flexible, plastic, metal, or otherwise unconventional substrates sometime soon.
I'm a doctor, not a scientist - What the hell does all this even mean?
@enjoytheride823 I think it means they can build thinner solar cells.
@enjoytheride823
Fast-forward to the last sentence...
". If the method's future proves successful, we'll all be using electronics built on flexible, plastic, metal, or otherwise unconventional substrates sometime soon."
@enjoytheride823
It means we will now be able to make very thin beer battered crackers with light beer. Why I Dun No
@enjoytheride823
As a doctor, you may remember from the biology class that you had to take that the cells of just about every living organism have a lipid bilayer membrane, most often the phospholipid type. Each lipid has a head and tail. The head is hydrophillic, meaning it seeks water, and the tail is repels water. As shown in the diagram, a layer of oil floats on top of the water. The elements have a 'water-loving side' that will seek water and a 'water-fearing' side that will repel water. This orients the elements in only one direction; the one that allows it to stick to the solar cell as it's pulled through the liquid (via FM, I guess).
@wonpunch
"and the tail is repels water" should read:
"and the tail is hydrophobic, meaning it repels water"
@enjoytheride823
Surely I can't be the only one who got the startrek reference, can I?
Gold?!
@cashclientel yupp... sooo... how many bums will be ripping these off the facade of your new building:? like the solar speed-limit signs...
Turing at his finest :)
How much does this reduce the cost per watt of solar energy? It needs to drop by 10x to be competitive with coal (excluding the environmental damage cost which no energy company pays for anyway).
this is what gets me excited; not some stupid apple slate that will contribute absolutely nothing to our planet.
laugh all you want.
the days of gasoline and coal are numbered.
@pencilmind Gasoline and Coal are energy storage mediums. Completely different from Solar Cells which extract their energy from the Sun
@Vdek well said. This is great and all, but unless it will lead to better batteries (storage mediums) then it only does so much good.
@pencilmind
Not quite. Solar power still isn't at the efficiency and cost levels that would make it viable compared to coal and oil. In addition, it is not a form of "baseload" power - it is not consistent. Also, you must consider what is going to power portable machines, like vehicles and remote equipment. Unless you also invent a viable super capacitor, using a bunch of batteries as a total replacement for liquid fuels isn't going to work right now for everything.
Oil and coal will still be with us for a long time... not a big deal. We'll swich over eventually thanks to the market and people's desire to just stop using fuel. Nuclear power will help reduce the grid's reliance on oil and natural gas. The US has significant reserves of coal right here in our country, so that's not a concern. Coal power is at its cleanest as it has ever been, and if the .gov decides to fund Clean Coal, it will become cleaner than even nuclear power.
It's a pity most people just jump on the anti-everything bandwagon without really educating themselves. If it were up to them, I think we'd all be living in tents and using wind up flashlights. That's not progress.
@Brokinarrow Uh, that's where hydrogen is supposed to come in.(energy carrier not energy source)
@pencilmind
One of the two biggest problems facing the economy is lack of cheap clean energy (I believe aneutronic fusion is the only viable answer .. with solar as a backup plan).
Nuclear fusion never received the funding to do the experiments that scientists said were needed. In the 70's we were 25 years away from fusion but then funding was cut by 90% for no good reason.
We need aneutronic fusion research to be made a priority and research projects like Z machine need to be funded.
Also, basic research in dramatically reducing the cost of solar energy is not being funded. Billions of dollars are being wasted in sustaining the old inefficient solar panels by funding the manufacturers of them to keep making them without researching alternatives.
Anyway, the second biggest problem is the lack of improved battery technology. To truly replace gasoline, batteries need a 10x improvement in storage ability. Yet advanced fundamental battery research gets only a few million dollars in funding (an unbelievably small amount considering that a 10x improved battery would save trillions of dollars).
@JS
"Nuclear fusion never received the funding to do the experiments that scientists said were needed. In the 70's we were 25 years away from fusion but then funding was cut by 90% for no good reason."
Well making sure you don't lose the billions upon billions of moneyz oil and gas would make over the next 25 years+ would be a pretty good reason to any government body with oil tycoons in their ears.
Atm France and Britain, Seeing Neutrons on video screens at Oxford still amazes me :P, seem to be the only ones really pushing viable Fushion but even that is quite a stretch in the use of the word "Push".
Environmental pressures aside we will always go with what's bringing in the cash since we live in a global society mostly driven by money...
This is not new. A company named Alien Technology has been using a process like this for years to assemble RFID tags. They call it Fluidic Self Assembly.
@meatyzilch
"Unemployment Continues to Rise: Assembly Laborers Replaced By Revolutionary Fluidic Process"
Don't we need the sun for these to work !!!!
Tony UK !
So this was developed in Minnesota?
... in a flash of short-sighted brilliance, someone hurry and sell this to the Koreans or Chinese so that ONCE AGAIN some seemingly revolutionary technology is first developed here in the US, but ultimately gets sold to a foreign company and benefits the people of that nation while screwing us out of both jobs and future profits.
It's the American way!
@Hazdaz
So I guess you buy only American-made products?
Like that car in your avata- wait...
So... what happens when I want to use soap to wash my solar cells/unconventional substrates, will my 64,000 components fall off?