Place this thin layer of plastic in the sun and it begins to oscillate irregularly all by itself. Today researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU\/e) and the Humboldt University in Berlin present this material \u00ad\u2013 the first that moves spontaneously under the influence of daylight \u2013 in the journal Nature Communications. According to the researchers, this pliable plastic is suitable as a self-cleaning surface, for example for solar cells.<\/p>\n
Materials that move all by themselves under the influence of light \u2013 this phenomenon has been known for a number of years. However, since the source tends to be ultraviolet light, the required intensity can damage the material. The challenge was to find a material that behaves in this way in visible light, preferably unprocessed sunlight. The researchers from Eindhoven and Berlin have now succeeded in producing a thin polymer layer containing light-sensitive molecules (azo-dyes<\/em>). Lying in sunlight, the thin film begins to oscillate spontaneously and irregularly<\/a>. Source: press release TU\/e<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Place this thin layer of plastic in the sun and it begins to oscillate irregularly all by itself. Today researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU\/e) and the Humboldt University in Berlin present this material \u00ad\u2013 the first that moves spontaneously under the influence of daylight \u2013 in the journal Nature Communications. According to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1568,"featured_media":64287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[823,7421,484,2519],"location":[],"article_type":[],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-64291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-education","tag-humboldt-en","tag-innovation","tag-tue-en"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Bart Brouwers","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/brewbart\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unnamed-2-1-300x157.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["education<\/a>","Humboldt<\/a>","innovation<\/a>","TU\/e<\/a>"],"unlinked":["education<\/span>","Humboldt<\/span>","innovation<\/span>","TU\/e<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 4, 2016","modified":"Updated on July 4, 2016"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 4, 2016 5:17 pm","modified":"Updated on July 4, 2016 5:17 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64291"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=64291"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=64291"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=64291"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=64291"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=64291"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=64291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nCombination of factors
\n<\/span><\/strong>Why the plastic does this is something that the researchers cannot yet quite explain. \u201cIt seems to be a combination of factors,\u201d suggests TU\/e researcher Michael Debije. \u201cThe light-sensitive molecules bend and stretch under the influence of visible light. Since these molecules are bound within the polymer network of crystal, this results in the material oscillating as if cramped. Of course, there\u2019s more to it than that \u2013 this is what we are investigating now.\u201d
\n
\nSelf-cleaning
\n<\/span><\/strong>One of the main possibilities for using the material is as a self-cleaning surface. \u201cA surface that vibrates in the sun makes it difficult for sand and dust to stick to it,\u201d Debije says. Fellow researcher, Dick Broer, thinks that self-cleaning solar panels in the desert where there are no water supplies could be an option. But the researchers believe there is a whole range of other possible applications. \u201cWe have just discovered the effect; we expect that this will attract attention from many researchers from whom we will be hearing a lot over the coming period,\u201d Debije says.<\/p>\n