A new approach is enabling researchers to create a dramatic
improvement in cheap solar cells now being developed in
laboratories. By using a popcorn-ball design — tiny kernels
clumped into much larger porous spheres — UW researchers are
able to manipulate light and more than double the efficiency of
converting solar energy to electricity. The findings were
presented in New Orleans at the national meeting of the American
Chemical Society. “We think this can lead to a significant
breakthrough in dye-sensitized solar cells,” said lead author
Guozhong Cao, a UW professor of materials science and
engineering. Dye-sensitized solar cells, first popularized in a
scientific article in 1991, are more flexible, easier to
manufacture and cheaper than existing solar technologies.
Researchers have tried various rough surfaces and achieved
higher and higher efficiencies. Current lab prototypes can
convert just over one-tenth of the incoming sun’s energy into
electricity. This is about half as efficient as the commercial,
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