New forms of power and free energy

Biological phenomenon could turbocharge electricity generation in solar cells.
Originally published:
Jan 7 2014 - 3:45pm
By:
Charles Q. Choi, ISNS Contributor

(ISNS) -- Sunlight drives nearly all life on Earth, and scientists want to develop ways for it to power civilization as well. Now researchers suggest that a relatively simple, biologically inspired technique for harvesting sunlight could in principle convert the sun's rays to electricity very efficiently.

In solar cells, molecules absorb photons, or packets of light energy, and give off electrons to generate an electrical current. However, these electrons can quickly combine with other charged particles, and get absorbed, causing the cells to lose efficiency. As the electrons are absorbed, the amount of electricity flowing through the cell is reduced.

On the other hand, the light-harvesting molecules that plants, bacteria and algae use in photosynthesis can convert light to electrical energy with nearly perfect efficiency under some conditions. This remarkable performance is impossible in classical physics — instead, experiments suggest it may be due to strange effects often seen in quantum physics. For instance, in quantum physics, particles such as electrons can essentially each be in more than one place at the same time or spin in two opposite directions simultaneously, a bizarre phenomenon known as superposition.