Nanotechnology and MPPT

1)Liquid Crystalline Elastomers in Carbon Nanotubes

Combination of liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE), which goes through a phase change and contracts in the presence of heat, with carbon nanotubes, which can absorb a wide range of light wavelengths. 

"Carbon nanotubes have a very wide range of absorption, visible light all the way to infrared,” says Jiang. “That is something we can take advantage of, since it is possible to use sunlight to drive it directly."

Direct sunlight hits a mirror beneath the solar panel, focused onto one of multiple actuators composed of LCE laced with carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotubes heat up as they absorb light, and the heat differential between the environment and inside the actuator causes the LCE to shrink. This causes the entire assembly to bow in the direction of the strongest sunlight. As the sun moves across the sky, the actuators will cool and re-expand, and new ones will shrink, re-positioning the panel over the 180 degrees of sky that the sun covers in the course of the day. "The idea is that wherever the sun goes, it will follow,"

2) Designs and Modifications to Solar PanelsPrototype solar panels incorporating nanotechnology are more efficient than standard designs in converting sunlight to electricity. Wires containing carbon nanotubes to have much lower resistance than the high-tension wires currently used in the electric grid and thus reduce transmission power loss . To power mobile electronic devices, researchers are developing thin-film solar electric panels that can be fitted onto computer cases and flexible piezoelectric nanowires woven into clothing to generate usable energy on-the-go from light, friction, and/or body heat.

3) Double-walled nanotubesDouble-walled nanotubes have the impressive ability to conduct electricity while also being transparent – therefore, sheets of the material could be used to transfer electricity to the sun side of a solar array while still allowing the use of the total solar array area. If the metal on the surface is a small particle instead of a smooth surface, the particle will vibrate – scattering the light and keeping it inside the solar cell. In addition, by changing the size of the particle, researchers were able to control the frequency of the scattered light and tune it to the band gap energy of the material. Both of these effects greatly increase the amount of light absorbed by electrons in the cell, and therefore increase the number of electrons that cross the junction and enter the electric circuit.

4) High Optical Absorption And less ReflectionOptical absorption and anti-reflection are important factors in achieving high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of solar cells. On  subwavelength-scale inorganic nanostructures (such as nanowires and nanoholes) have attracted significant attention because of the nanostructure-induced light-trapping effect. When light is incident on these nanostructures, photons bounce back and forth between nanoscale gaps, which causes an increase in light absorption.

5) New advanced Solar cellsnew solar cell made from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that is twice as good at converting sunlight into power than the best previous such cells . Single walled carbon nanotube with fullerene.... to absorb broader spectrum of wavelength ie. close to infrared.