UNT Research, Volume 20, 2011 Page: 45
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FB
F' ;w.Justii Youngblood
photovoltaic solar cells that could one day pro
inexpensive, renewahle electrical enef
"I tell my students that design in
consumer electronics is a backward pro-
cess, not forward," Mohanty says. "You
have to design with the user in mind and
then make what people want."
NIsxr-(i ERATIoN SOLAR CE( .Li.S
Who doesn't want a cheap way to
heat their home? Harvesting the sun's
light to generate electricity is one of the
most sought-after energy solutions; how-
ever, current technology makes nature's
endless source cost prohibitive. Silicon-
based solar cells are heavy and expensive
to make.
Justin Youngblood, assistant profes-
sor of chemistry, is studying next-genera-
tion photovoltaic solar cells to efficiently
convert light into electrical energy.
"We're brainstorming new ways to
make plastic solar cell manufacturing
robust by bridging organic and inorganic
materials," he says. "Interactions with
light occur in short timescales, and in the
nanoscale we can create ways to do some-
thing useful very quickly with energy."
Youngblood grows oxide structures
hydrothermally in his lab, using zinc
oxide nano-rods as a template and creat-
ing a porous membrane of zirconium
dioxide.
"The structure allows for more elec-
tron transfer reactions at the interface of
organic and inorganic materials," he says,
"which harvests energy."
He's also using organic dye baths
to create dye-sensitized solar cells that
become energized by absorbing light.
They are cheap to produce and could
one day inexpensively provide renewable
electrical energy for homes, with multi-tudes of cells manufactured on flexible scanning electron microscope, to take
materials rolled on rooftops.
While other researchers have used
single cell and plant-based sources for
dyes, Youngblood is the first to use
compounds derived from an organic red
dye from cochineal insects, the only bio-
renewable solar dye source derived from a
multi-celled animal.
"The cochineal dye - a source of
carminic acid that the insects produce to
deter predators - is an age-old source
of red dyes used by the Aztecs for their
textiles," he says.
After "cooking" his materials in the
lab, Youngblood uses CART's Nova
NanoSEM, an ultra-high resolutionmagnified 3-D photos at the nanoscale.
And he uses a Profilometer, a "record
needle-type instrument," to measure
the vertical depth of the images' surface.
He looks forward to the opening of
Discovery Park's new clean room this
year to facilitate his processes.
Youngblood's creative research is
part of the Bio/Nano Photonics clus-
ter, and he also is working with the
Renewable Bioproducts cluster.
"I see this as 'intellectual prospect-
ing,"' he says. "Sometimes if you revisit
ideas, you can strike gold." IVisit www.unt.edu/untresearch to learn about other innovative
nanotechnology research being conducted at UNT.UNT RESEARCH 2011 45
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University of North Texas. UNT Research, Volume 20, 2011, periodical, 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc115034/m1/45/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting University Relations, Communications & Marketing department for UNT.