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Berkeley Lab Technology Could Open Door to More Widespread Solar Energy Devices

A technology that would enable low-cost, high efficiency solar cells to be made from virtually any semiconductor material has been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. This technology opens the door to the use of plentiful, relatively inexpensive semiconductors, such as the promising metal oxides, sulfides and phosphides, that have been considered unsuitable for solar cells because it is so difficult to tailor their properties by chemical means.

“It’s time we put bad materials to good use,” says physicist Alex Zettl, who led this research along with colleague Feng Wang. “Our technology allows us to sidestep the difficulty in chemically tailoring many earth abundant, non-toxic semiconductors and instead tailor these materials simply by applying an electric field.” (more…)

Novel Device Removes Heavy Metals From Water

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2011Environmentacid, base, brown university, cadmium, cathodic particles, cation concentration, cations, cep system, charged metal ions, concentration, copper, cyclic electrowinning precipitation, electrochemical reduction, electroextraction, engineers, environmental contaminant, environmental remediation, genie in the bottle, george hradil, heavy metal ions, hydroxides, joseph calo, landfills, metal recovery, metal removal technique, method, nickel, parts per million, pengpeng grimshaw, ph, ppm, reduction of heavy metal ions, release of heavy metals, remove, sodium hydroxide, spe, spouted particulate electrode, sulfides, sulfuric acid, technic inc, textile factories, toxic sludge, trace heavy metals, unhealthy byproduct, water, waterways, zero valent metal

*Engineers at Brown University have developed a system that cleanly and efficiently removes trace heavy metals from water. In experiments, the researchers showed the system reduced cadmium, copper, and nickel concentrations, returning contaminated water to near or below federally acceptable standards. The technique is scalable and has viable commercial applications, especially in the environmental remediation and metal recovery fields. Results appear in the Chemical Engineering Journal.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — An unfortunate consequence of many industrial and manufacturing practices, from textile factories to metalworking operations, is the release of heavy metals in waterways. Those metals can remain for decades, even centuries, in low but still dangerous concentrations.

Ridding water of trace metals “is really hard to do,” said Joseph Calo, professor emeritus of engineering who maintains an active laboratory at Brown. He noted the cost, inefficiency, and time needed for such efforts. “It’s like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.” (more…)

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Photovoltaics from Any Semiconductor

Novel Device Removes Heavy Metals From Water