{"id":345103,"date":"2022-01-07T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=345103"},"modified":"2022-01-07T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T10:00:00","slug":"new-crystals-let-your-solar-panel-self-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/new-crystals-let-your-solar-panel-self-heal\/","title":{"rendered":"New crystals let your solar panel self-heal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sci-fi movies and superhero tales always surprise us with outstanding materials, resistant to every kind of damage. In some cases, such materials are able to self-heal. What seemed to be unrealistic, or strictly related to Spiderman or Superman is now becoming possible, thanks to a recent discovery made by a cohort of scientists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of researchers at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology<\/a> developed self-healing nanocrystals<\/em> – particles that measure a thousand-millionth of a meter. They used double perovskites <\/em>– a class of materials with potential uses in solar cells. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study group led by Prof. Yehonadav Bekenstein is specialized in synthesizing nanocrystals – the smallest existing particles that are capable of remaining naturally stable. Their size allows them to be seen through a transmission electron microscope – using a beam of electrons instead of light. This enables them to see objects smaller than the wavelength of light, and in this case, see how atoms move inside the crystals.  In fact, this is precisely what has made Technion’s discovery possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy colleague Sasha Khalfin recorded hours of video from the microscope, and noticed that something we didn\u2019t expect was going on, \u201d recalls Noam Veber. He is a physics PhD student and contributed to the project that worked on the calculations needed to reproduce the phenomenon and to track the way it develops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crystal ejects the void <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Perovskite nanoparticles<\/em> are easy to produce. For Technion\u2019s material, the process requires heating the material to 100\u00b0C for a few minutes. They can be analyzed under the transmission electron microscope<\/em>, which creates holes in the perovskite nanocrystals with its electron beam radiation. Technion scientists wanted to see how such holes interacted with the material. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As time passes,  they found that holes formed on the surface of the nanoparticles, but then moved quickly to its inner parts to the most energetically stable areas. It seemed like they were pushed inwards by some kind of force. \u201cIt appeared counterintuitive to us, and that’s when we formulated our first hypothesis\u201d, adds Veber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nanocrystals\u2019 surface is surrounded by organic molecules – called ligands<\/em>, whose addition is a necessary part in perovskite nanocrystals synthesis. Which is why the researchers hypothesized that such a phenomenon could have something to do with these ligands, They removed the ligands, noticing that the crystal was then \u2018ejected\u2019 out the holes, thereby repairing itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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