Original article: http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_06/060910.htm#story3
By Mike McDonald
Tico Times Staff | mmcdonald@ticotimes.net
A team of researchers from the University of Costa
Rica (UCR) and the Costa Rican Technological Institute (ITCR) has won
the 2009 Contribution to Quality and Excellence Award and a $25,000
cash prize from the Florida Ice and Farm Company for developing a more
efficient solar energy cell, the UCR announced on Tuesday.
The
team's project, titled Solar Cells that Contain Sensitive Dye for the
Production of Electric Energy, uses a titanium dioxide cell with a
ruthenium dye base to absorb a greater amount of the electromagnetic
spectrum than the solar cells that presently exist.
To
date, cells in solar panels typically have been made with polymorphic
silicone, which has a lower output than the dye-based method that the
UCR-ITCR team has created. Silicone also requires a costly purification
process, increasing the price of solar panels and discouraging people
from purchasing them.
The
researchers' proposal is to replace the silicone with the ruthenium dye
base, which would increase solar panel efficiency and bring down the
up-front costs of producing solar energy.
"The
titanium dioxide (cell) has a much lower price than silicon and it is
much more accessible", said Leslie Pineda, a researcher at the UCR's
School of Chemistry.
The project was initially funded by the National Council of University Rectors.