Zinc oxide gives green shine to new photoconductors

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/nu-zog031809.php

Public release date: 18-Mar-2009

Contact: Megan Fellman
[e-mail]
847-491-3115
http://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University

Zinc oxide gives green shine to new photoconductors

Photodetectors -- devices found in cell phones, digital cameras and other consumer gadgets that utilize photoconducting materials -- are a green technology in performance (converting light into electricity), but the manufacture of very powerful photodetectors needs to be improved before they can qualify for solid green status.

This is especially true if photoconducting materials are to be widely used for producing solar energy.

Northwestern University researchers have designed a high-performing photoconducting material that uses zinc oxide -- an environmentally friendly inorganic compound found in baby powder and suntan lotion -- instead of lead sulfide. (Currently, the best performing photoconductor is based on lead sulfide nanoparticles.)

The new material converts light into electricity but, unlike conventional materials, also features a novel combination of attractive attributes: environmentally benign chemistry, low-cost production, a high level of detectivity, mechanical flexibility and wavelength tunability (ability to design the material to absorb the most important part of the solar spectrum).

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