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  • The future is huge

  • for tiny technology.

  • Miniaturization is, perhaps ironically, a huge deal. I mean, without it we wouldn't

  • have had the personal computer revolution and we wouldn't have this world we live in

  • now, where we have smartphones and tablets and other devices just as powerful as a computer,

  • that can fit in the palm of your hand.

  • But even these gadgets are gargantuan compared to nanotechnology!

  • See, a nanometer is just one billionth of a meter.

  • And that's kind of hard to imagine, so let me put it to you this way.

  • Your typical sheet of paper is about one hundred thousand nanometers thick. And at this scale,

  • individual elements are so small you can't even see them with a light microscope.

  • Now as we learn more about how materials behave on the nanoscale, we have more potential applications

  • to use that knowledge practically.

  • I'm talking about how nanotech could help solar panel technology.

  • And fortunately, at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of

  • Science, or AAAS, they had a panel on just this very subject.

  • Now if you know anything about solar panels you know they have some drawbacks. For example,

  • efficiency - they max out at around twenty percent in the field under ideal conditions.

  • They're also rigid, so you can't just put them anywhere you like.

  • And they tend to be expensive because manufacturing them is complicated.

  • But scientists hope that nanotechnology can help address all three of these challenges.

  • Now with efficiency they're looking to nature - specifically, moth eyes.

  • You see, moths have these little tiny structures in their eyes that help reflect light back

  • into the eye and it does two things - it lets them see better in the dark, and it cuts down

  • on reflection so predators can't spot them as easily.

  • With solar panels it could actually make them more efficient by reflecting more of the sun's

  • light into the panel so you lose less in reflection.

  • And when we're talking about flexibility, well nanomaterials are really, really small,

  • and there is the potential to create solar panels that are just a few sheets of molecules

  • thick.

  • They could be as flexible as a sheet of paper, and with that kind of flexibility you could

  • put those pretty much anywhere you wanted to.

  • And as for price, well, that's the big one. And in the short term I don't think it's going

  • to turn around.

  • But scientists are cautiously optimistic that nanotechnology will let us use new processes,

  • like printing solar panels directly onto a substrate using just a specialized printer.

  • That would actually be less complicated and expensive than traditional manufacturing methods.

  • Now at that meeting of the AAAS, a Dr. Wolfgang Porod gave a talk about Nanoantenna Thermocouples

  • for Energy Harvesting.

  • Which I admit sounds like techno-babble straight out of a Star Trek episode.

  • But it's actually fairly simple once you break it down.

  • A nanoantenna is just an antenna on the nanoscale. These resonate with long-wave infrared radiation.

  • And a thermocouple? Well that's a component of circuitry that generates a voltage when

  • one part of the thermocouple is a different temperature than other part.

  • So you pair these two together and the antenna generates heat and the thermocouple generates

  • voltage.

  • It could actually help increase the efficiency of solar panels.

  • Now like I said, nanotechnology is a young science and it has lots of different applications

  • across many disciplines. And I'm really excited how such a small technology could have such

  • a huge impact.

  • That leads me to this week's question. When I say the word "nanotechnology" what do you

  • imagine? What does that word mean to you?

  • Let us know in the comments below.

  • Then, do me a nano-sized favor and share this video with your friends. If you enjoyed it

  • make sure you hit the 'like' button and subscribe to our channel.

  • Then check out these videos over here. There's some huge surprises in them.

The future is huge

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太陽エネルギーの未来はTINY技術! (The Future of Solar Energy is TINY Technology!)

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    elearn に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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