14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists now say that, as surprising as this may sound, there is one very simple way to boost the efficiency of solar cells. Long story short, it appears that solar cells generate more energy when made to “listen” to pop and rock music.
Thus, researchers with Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London argue that, when exposed to the high frequencies and pitch of pop and rock music, solar cells start dancing to the beat, and end up producing about 40% more energy than they normally would.
“We tried playing music instead of dull flat sounds, as this helped us explore the effect of different pitches,” explains study co-author James Durrant, now working as a professor of photochemistry at the Imperial College London.
“The biggest difference we found was when we played pop music rather than classical, which we now realize is because our acoustic solar cells respond best to the higher pitched sounds present in pop music,” he adds.
Green Click details that the solar cells used in these experiments were made by the researchers themselves. Thus, the latter detail that, in order to “grow” them, they started by piecing together billions of nanorods made from zinc oxide.
The nanorods were later topped with a layer of active polymer. The result was a device that collects sunlight and turns it into electricity.
When exposed to sound levels as low as 75 decibels, these lab-made solar cells started producing more electricity than they did when allowed to spend their time in peace and quiet.
“We thought the soundwaves, which produce random fluctuations, would cancel each other out and so didn't expect to see any significant overall effect on the power output,” says James Durrant.
“The key for us was that not only that the random fluctuations from the sound didn't cancel each other out, but also that some frequencies of sound seemed really to amplify the solar cell output – so that the increase in power was a remarkably big effect considering how little sound energy we put in,” the researcher further details.
The scientists who worked on this project expect that, in time, their discovery will lead to the development of new and better ways to harvest sun power.