Illuminati Physics Lab

  From Rocks to Nanomaterials From Rocks to Nanomaterials How Nanoscience Helps Us Understand Geology Introduction Geology is one of the oldest natural sciences. It studies the Earth, rocks, minerals, soils, mountains, oceans, and the processes that shape our planet over millions of years. Traditionally, geology focused mainly on materials visible to the naked eye or under simple microscopes. However, modern science has revealed that many important properties of geological materials actually originate at much smaller length scales — at the micro- and nanoscale. 1 nm = 10 -9 m A nanometre is one billionth of a metre. It is so small that only a few atoms arranged together can occupy such a length scale. Geology teaches us how nature creates materials over millions of years. Nanoscience teaches us how to understand the design of these materials at the smallest possible scale. From Rocks to Nanostructures A rock that we hold in our hand is not a simp...

Stability–Efficiency Tradeoff in Perovskite Solar Cells Think of a perovskite solar cell like a small team of three children trying to carry water from one place to another. The final success is called efficiency . For a solar cell: Efficiency ≈ V oc × J sc × FF That means efficiency depends on three friends working together . 1. V oc — The Pushing Strength V oc is like how strongly the cell pushes electrons . High V oc means the cell can give a good voltage. But to get very high V oc , we often need very perfect interfaces and low defects. Sometimes the special layers used to increase voltage may not remain stable for a long time under heat, light, moisture, or ion movement. High voltage is good, but the material must keep that voltage for months and years. 2. J sc — How Many Electrons Are Produced J sc is like how many children are carrying water...