Sun is that big ball of fire and energy that has been part of our lives from the time immemorial and we have had various attempts at harnessing its energy to convert it in various forms. We have succeeded of course, from conversion to electricity via photovoltaic (PV) panels, concentrated heat to drive steam turbines, and even hydrogen generation via artificial photosynthesis but the losses related to these transmissions have always been huge. What if we could utilise all of the sunlight that we get without any losses?

It would be a revolutionary thing in the field of energy transmission. Now scientists working at the University of Bayreuth claim that they have created a super-efficient light-energy transport conduit that exhibits almost zero loss. They have used specifically generated nanofibres at the core of this conduit or system.

The scientists have based their conduit on Quantum coherence. Quantum coherence is the phenomenon where subatomic waves are closely interlinked via shared electromagnetic fields. As they travel in phase together, these quantum coherent waves start to act as one very large synchronous wave propagating across a medium. In the case of conduit created by University of Bayreuth these coherent waves of energy travel across the molecular building blocks from which the nanofibers are made, passing from block to block and moving as one continuous energy wave would in unbound free space. According to the scientists, this is exactly the effect which is driving the super-low energy loss capabilities of their device.

It is to be noted that the nanofibres used in the core of the conduit are specifically-prepared supramolecular strands and are manufactured from a chemically customized combination of carbonyl-bridged (molecularly connected) triarylamine (an organic compound) combined with three naphthalimide bithiophene chromophores (copolymer molecules that absorb and reflect specific wavelengths of light). When brought together under particular conditions, these elements spontaneously self-assemble into 4 micrometer long, 0.005 micrometer diameter nanofibers made up of more than 10,000 identical chemical building blocks.

Let’s hope the revolution of converting sunlight into various forms of energy without losses happens soon!

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Author:Technology Blog