Artificial Sunflowers Could Harvest More Solar Energy

Ground-breaking artificial sunflowers, known as SunBots can harvest up to 400% more energy. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Arizona State University have developed the solar panel known as SunBot.

Each SunBot consists of a stem made of a material that reacts to light and has an energy harvesting flower at the top, which is made of standard light-absorbing material that is commonly used in solar cells. The device is less than 1 millimetre wide.

When a part of the SunBot’s stem is exposed to light, it heats up and shrinks, which causes the stem to point the flower towards the light. Once the SunBot is aligned with the light, the stem stops bending as it creates a shadow that allows the material to cool down and stop shrinking. When the plants bend toward the sun, they exhibit behaviour which is called as phototropism. The scientists have bio-mimicked this tropistic behavior in a light-responsive artificial sunflower that can harvest solar energy.

The scientists have recently published their findings in Nature Nanotechnology, where they have explained their rationale in using smart responsive materials to model the natural phototropism exhibited by plants. The sunflower nanotechnology presented by UCLA’s Ximin He and her research team could offer this for solar energy collection.

He’s research focuses on biologically inspired materials like the sunflowers, where polymers mimic the natural responses of plant, animal, or even fungal organisms to work more efficiently. Professor, He stated that the newly developed technology would have the capacity to increase the amount of energy twofold in comparison to the collection of a stationary solar panel, and this would make future solar energy much more readily available. The researcher team reiterated that the SunBOTs could provide a long-sought solution to energy harvesting via the autonomous maximisation of the input power density.

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