Crystalline silicon

Solar cell technology has seen little innovation since the inceptive crystalline silicon solar cell. While crystalline silicon solar cells offer stable and high efficiencies (~24% out of a theoretical 33.7% maximum1), their manufacturing process is expensive and environmentally detrimental. Over the past decade, photovoltaic and optoelectronic materials based on organic molecules have gained popularity. These cells promise to be low-cost, flexible, environmentally friendly, and…

My undergraduate education is quite unique compared to many other students. I attend Berea College, a small liberal arts school in Berea, Kentucky. Berea is one of few schools in the U.S. that gives every student a full tuition scholarship. Berea is capable of awarding its students full tuition scholarship because of it Student Labor Program. Every students is required to work a minimum of ten hours a week in return for the full tuition scholarship, and many students including myself, work…

kind of transistor in 1925. But later the Bell Labs edition was allocated the name bipolar junction transistor, or merely junction transistor, and design of Lilienfeld came to be identified as field effect transistor. Later, Jean Hoerni found that Silicon dioxide (SiO2) should be used to passivate the surface edges of p-n junctions, and it was demonstrated in his patent application in May 1959. This planar structure led Robert Noyce to integrate a variety of devices, such as diodes and…

The current standard for the kilogram is the International Prototype Kilogram. The International Prototype Kilogram, also known as Le Grand K, is a platinum-iridium bar made in the 1880’s. This official Kilogram is kept in a vault in Paris under two glass domes. The reason it is under 2 glass domes it to prevent dust from obstructing from the weight of the Kilogram. However according to Sandia National Laboratories, a government organization under the Department of Energy, “Of the seven units of…

Solar Energy Energy is considered as the most important issue of the 21st century. About 85% of today’s modern world use of energy comes from fossil fuels (Blah Blah). These particular resources, fossil fuels, are finite in quantity, and has been a major cause of air pollution and global warming. Scientists are finding alternative sources of energy to solve the century’s puzzle, a resource which is renewable, natural and efficient such as solar energy. Over 2700 years ago, people have been…

Brooker are essential to the FSEC team; they have been working on projects within the U.S. photovoltaic manufacturing consortium requiring diamond wire characterization. Dr. Seigneur is currently managing the Feedstock and Wafering Program at the crystalline silicon branch of the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC). His role involves overseeing the activities of several working groups within that program including research on diamond wire monitoring and failure mode analysis. He…

Silicosis: caused by inhaling silica dust, Silicosis is a fibrotic lung disease due to the inhalation of respirable crystalline silicon dioxide (silica) (Leung et al., 2012), the most common quartz, in occupational settings such as tunneling, mining, sandblasting, and quarrying. Silicosis often develops progressively and irreversibly over decades even after exposure has ceased…

energy demand, such as powering a water pump, the appliances and lights in a home, or—if the PV system is large enough—all the electrical requirements of a community. There are currently four commercial production technologies for PV Modules: Single Crystalline This is the oldest and more expensive production technique, but it's also the most efficient sunlight conversion technology available. Module efficiency averages about 10% to…

The Nanotube Introduction: Nanotubes, specifically the carbon nanotubes are just one of the handful of structures engineers and scientist use today that fall in the nanoscale category. Structures in the nanoscale category are usually between 1-100 nanometers, which one nanometer is one-billionth the size of a meter. A confusing yet beneficial property found in materials at the nanoscale is a concept call quantum called quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics the laws of classic or Newtonian…

relies on the alkaline solution reacting into the silicon Si and aluminium Al atoms in the source materials (Abdullah.M et al., 2011). This will result in a gel that binds aggregates together to form geopolymer concrete, which is normally assisted by the application of heat. Pozzolan is defined as a reactive aluminosilicates, which can be either glassy (natural volcanic glasses or man-made glasses eg: fly ash or silica fume) or poorly crystalline [metakaolin]. Pozzolanic material consists of…