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Abstract: The sun may soon power many more homes and appliances, thanks to chemists at Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University. They have invented a way to manufacture highly precise, uniform nanoparticles to order. The technology, which won an R&D 100 Award this year, has the potential to vastly improve photovoltaic cells and further spur the growing nanotech revolution. Nanoparticle breakthrough could improve solar cells Idaho Falls, ID | Posted on October 29th, 2009 INL chemist Bob Fox and his ISU colleagues were looking for a better way to make semiconducting nanoparticles for solar cells. When the researchers introduced "supercritical" carbon dioxide - CO2 that behaves like both a gas and a liquid - to their reactions, they generated high-quality nanoparticles at low, energy-saving temperatures. And, surprisingly, the nanoparticles were incredibly uniform. With subsequent tweaking, the team figured out how to make nanoparticles of prescribed sizes - anywhere from 1 to 100 nanometers - with unprecedented precision. Because the properties of nanoparticles are so strongly size-dependent, the implications of this breakthrough are vast.

Abstract: The sun may soon power many more homes and appliances, thanks to chemists at Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University. They have invented a way to manufacture highly precise, uniform nanoparticles to order. The technology, which won an R&D 100 Award this year, has the potential to vastly improve photovoltaic cells and further spur the growing nanotech revolution. Nanoparticle breakthrough could improve solar cells Idaho Falls, ID | Posted on October 29th, 2009 INL chemist Bob Fox and his ISU colleagues were looking for a better way to make semiconducting nanoparticles for solar cells. When the researchers introduced "supercritical" carbon dioxide - CO2 that behaves like both a gas and a liquid - to their reactions, they generated high-quality nanoparticles at low, energy-saving temperatures. And, surprisingly, the nanoparticles were incredibly uniform. With subsequent tweaking, the team figured out how to make nanoparticles of prescribed sizes - anywhere from 1 to 100 nanometers - with unprecedented precision. Because the properties of nanoparticles are so strongly size-dependent, the implications of this breakthrough are vast.

Let's take a trip down the Palouse to check in with the most progressive university in our region (come on local schools, that ought to light a fire). It seems like we're always talking about new and exciting environmental stories coming from our neighbors to the south, and today is no disappointment ...

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory say they have devised an inexpensive way to produce plastic sheets containing billions of nanoantennas that collect heat energy generated by the sun and other sources. They say this technology is the first step toward a solar energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials.