The electronic transistor you've been waiting for
How do you pack more power into an electric car?
Aug 28, 2018
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How do you pack more power into an electric car?
Aug 28, 2018
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An international team of university researchers today reports solving a major fabrication challenge for perovskite cells—the intriguing potential challengers to silicon-based solar cells.
Jun 21, 2018
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In the field of photovoltaic technologies, silicon-based solar cells make up 90 percent of the market. In terms of cost, stability and efficiency (20-22 percent for a typical solar cell on the market), they are well ahead ...
Jun 12, 2018
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A new method of creating bendable silicon chips could help pave the way for a new generation of high-performance flexible electronic devices.
Mar 15, 2018
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Unlike traditional silicon solar cells, organic polymer solar cells (PSCs) may never cover the hillsides of a megawatt solar farm. But, these lightweight, flexible cells show potential to provide solar power to remote microwatt ...
Feb 20, 2018
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New research led by WMG, at the University of Warwick has found an effective approach to replacing graphite in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries using silicon, by reinforcing the anode's structure with graphene girders. ...
Jan 23, 2018
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Silicon is the element of the electronic age. From tiny microchips to mammoth LCD television screens, the semiconducting metalloid plays a central role in the devices that define modern life.
Oct 9, 2017
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When a team of engineers went to work in 2015 looking for a new technique to boost the cost-effectiveness of solar cells, they didn't realize they'd end with a bonus – a way to help improve the collision avoidance systems ...
Oct 5, 2017
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Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can offer high light-conversion efficiency with low manufacturing costs. But to be commercially viable, perovskite films must also be durable and not degrade under solar light over time. EPFL ...
Sep 28, 2017
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A concentrating photovoltaic system with embedded microtracking can produce over 50 percent more energy per day than standard silicon solar cells in a head-to-head competition, according to a team of engineers who field tested ...
Jul 17, 2017
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Silicon (pronounced /ˈsɪlɨkən/ or /ˈsɪlɨkɒn/, Latin: silicium) is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon. As the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, silicon very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature, but is more widely distributed in dusts, planetoids and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. On Earth, silicon is the second most abundant element (after oxygen) in the crust, making up 25.7% of the crust by mass.
Silicon has many industrial uses. It is the principal component of most semiconductor devices, most importantly integrated circuits or microchips. Silicon is widely used in semiconductors because it remains a semiconductor at higher temperatures than the semiconductor germanium and because its native oxide is easily grown in a furnace and forms a better semiconductor/dielectric interface than any other material.
In the form of silica and silicates, silicon forms useful glasses, cements, and ceramics. It is also a constituent of silicones, a class-name for various synthetic plastic substances made of silicon, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, often confused with silicon itself.
Silicon is an essential element in biology, although only tiny traces of it appear to be required by animals. It is much more important to the metabolism of plants, particularly many grasses, and silicic acid (a type of silica) forms the basis of the striking array of protective shells of the microscopic diatoms.
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