Most conventional solar arrays lose perfectly good light when it is reflected away from, instead of absorbed by, the panels. A team from North Carolina State University has turned to Mother Nature, using biomimicry.
They found their solution in the eyes of moths, writes Treehugger. A moth's eyes are highly non-reflective, allowing it to see in situations when light is limited.
"We were inspired by the surface structure of a moth's eye, which has evolved so that it doesn't reflect light," says Dr Chih-Hao Chang, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the university and co-author of a paper on the research.
Loss of light due to reflection is a particular concern when dealing with a thin-film solar panel, also known as thin-film interference. According to the university, thin-film interference occurs when a thin film of one substance lies on top of a second substance. In the case of solar energy, this is problematic, as more and more light is lost as it encounters each film interface. "The more thin films a device has, the more interfaces there are, and the more light is lost," the university said.
By studying the complex structure of a moth's eye, the North Carolina State University team believes it has come up with a solution to this reflection problem. By mimicking the structure of a moth's eye, the team has created nanostructures shaped like tiny cones that significantly minimise loss of light.
This is not the first time an insect's eye has served as inspiration for scientific innovation. Earlier this month, researchers showcased a digital camera with lenses that mimic the compound eyes of ants. The 200-lens camera has the potential to improve the technology doctors use to get a better look at what is happening inside their patients. Similar ant-inspired research saw a team of academics from the Georgia Institute of Technology study the burrowing activities of ants to see how they build their underground tunnels. This research could prove useful in the development of robots used in search and rescue missions.
According to Kevin Ma, a mechanical engineering graduate student at Harvard, there is a definite "cross-pollination" happening as science and technology meet biology. Ma was involved in the design of a miniscule robot with the aerial efficiency of a housefly that can be used to look for survivors following natural disasters. "The walls that divided the life sciences and the physical sciences are sort of becoming transparent, so we're trading ideas," he concludes.
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