Revolutionary Material: Boosting Solar Panels and Cancer Treatments

• The material consists of ultra-small silicon nanoparticles and an organic element.
• Researchers demonstrate photon up-conversion, emitting light with higher energy than the input.
• The material’s application extends to improving solar cell efficiency.

A novel material developed at the little-explored interface of organic and inorganic chemistry may enable not only more powerful solar panels, but also the next generation of cancer treatments.

The composite, described in a Nature Chemistry journal study published on June 12, is built of ultra-small silicon nanoparticles and an organic element similar to those used in OLED displays. It has the ability to increase the rate at which two molecules exchange energy and to convert lower-energy light into higher-energy light.

Only a few facilities throughout the world are capable of producing silicon nanoparticles to the required requirements. One of these labs is directed by Lorenzo Mangolini, a mechanical engineering and materials science professor at UC Riverside who helped develop the manufacturing technique.

“The new material improves on previous attempts we’ve made to create something that efficiently exchanges energy between two dissimilar components,” stated Mangolini. “There are numerous opportunities to use this for a wide range of applications, but perhaps one of the most important from the standpoint of human health is for cancer.”

Ultraviolet laser light, for example, can generate free radicals that can destroy cancer tissue. UV radiation, on the other hand, does not penetrate deeply enough into tissues to create therapeutic radicals close to the tumour site. Near-infrared light, on the other hand, penetrates deeply into the body but lacks the energy to produce radicals.

The researchers used the novel material to show that it is feasible to emit light with more energy than the one aimed at the material, a process known as photon up-conversion. Aside from being efficient, the silicon “dots” at the heart of this high-energy substance are non-toxic.

Taking low-energy light and converting it to a higher energy form could be utilised to improve solar cell efficiency by allowing them to catch near-infrared light that would otherwise pass through them. When optimised, low-energy lighting has the potential to lower the size of solar panels by 30%.

“These cells usually don’t use low-energy photons, but using this system, you could. We could make the arrays much more efficient,” Mangolini added.

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