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Abstract:
A University of Oregon professor is a major contributor to a national research team exploring a novel way to use fractal geometry to improve the production of electricity in solar panels.

University of Oregon Professor is Awarded Collaborative Grant in Solar Energy Conversion

Tucson, AZ | Posted on January 4th, 2012

Richard Taylor, a physics professor, is working with researchers from the University of Denver, the University of California - Davis and the University of California-Merced under a grant from Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), America's second-oldest independent foundation, begun in 1912.

Their research project, "Fractals as a Promising Geometry for Enhanced Solar Energy Conversion," is actually fairly simple to explain, according to Taylor.

Fractals are naturally repeating patterns found widely in nature - from vast stretches of rugged seacoast to the finest veins in the tiniest of plant leaves.

"In this project we hope to use branching fractals - the type found in leaves and trees - to optimize the collection of sunlight, while reducing the cost of doing so," Taylor said.

The researchers are actually tackling two different projects, he said. The first is to create organic photovoltaic cells that rely on nanoscale fractal pathways for the direct conversion of sunlight to electricity.

The term "organic" refers to carbon-based molecules, which are generally very common, and hence, inexpensive. "Nanoscale" refers to the realm of the very small, a true nanoscale device is generally thought to be around 100 nanometers or less in size. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, roughly the equivalent of a marble compared to the earth.

The second project, Taylor said, will be an attempt to grow bacteria in fractal patterns to maximize their ability to produce renewable liquid fuel by absorbing sunlight.

The Scialog Collaborative Award, which enables Taylor and his collaborators to explore this line of research, stems from RCSA's Scialog® initiative. Scialog is short for science dialog. The initiative's goal is to get top scientists talking to one another in hopes of accelerating breakthrough discoveries in areas of major global concern, said RCSA President and CEO James M. Gentile.

This year the foundation made only three Collaborative Awards at its annual meeting, which drew more than 60 top solar researchers to Bisophere2 north of Tucson, Ariz. Scialog encourages early-career scientists to collaborate in the pursuit of high-risk/potentially high-reward research, Gentile said. He explained that means that the experiments the program funds may frequently fail to produce intended results, but when they do succeed, they are likely to represent major advances in our basic understanding or in the effectiveness of our technology.

The winners of this year's Scialog Collaborative Awards were determined by a panel of solar energy experts led by Nathan Lewis, the George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Lewis is currently heading a $122-million U.S. Department of Energy program to accelerate the development of renewable liquid fuels produced by photosynthesis, the process by which plants produce energy from sunlight.

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About Research Corporation for Science Advancement
Research Corporation for Science Advancement (www.rescorp.org) – formerly known as Research Corporation – was founded in 1912 and is the second-oldest foundation in the United States (after the Carnegie Corporation) and the oldest foundation devoted wholly to science. Research Corporation is a leading advocate for the sciences and a major funder of scientific innovation and of research in America’s colleges and universities. Follow updates from RCSA on Facebook and Twitter.

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