30/09/2015

They seem common glass for windows, but are plastic plates with fluorescent nanoparticles that capture and concentrate light transforming the window in a solar panel.

It is the result of the work of a research team of theDepartment of Materials Science, University of Milan-Bicocca, coordinated by professors Francesco Meinardi and Sergio Brovelli, in collaboration with the group lead by Victor I. Klimov of Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) and Hunter McDaniel from UbiQD Company, which has developed a new type of luminescent solar concentrators (LSC): plastic or glass plates in which are embedded special nanoparticles that absorb sunlight and re-emit it within the slab. Then small solar cells placed along the perimeter of the window collect the trapped light, converting it into electricity.

In this way, even a partially transparent window becomes an electricity generator that can power the computer for an office, the air conditioner on a hot day or the interior lighting of a house.

The study, "Highly efficient large-area colorless luminescent solar concentrators using heavy-metal-free colloidal quantum dots" (DOI: 10.1038 / NNANO.2015.178), was published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology

For more information go to the press release.