The United States uses carbon nanotubes instead of silicon tubes to make efficient solar cells

Researchers at Cornell University in the United States used carbon nanotubes instead of traditional silicon tubes to create high-efficiency solar cells.

The key to this technology is to use carbon nanotubes instead of traditional silicon tubes to make photodiodes, which are the basic components of solar cells. The researchers used different colors of lasers to study this diode and found that it can double the current intensity in the process of converting light energy into electrical energy.

Carbon nanotubes are ideal photodiodes because they can make full use of excess light energy, which is often lost as heat in traditional solar cells, the researchers said.

The research results were published in the online version of the American magazine Science. Nathan Gabor, a graduate student at Cornell University and the first author of the paper, said: "We not only found a new type of material, but also put it into use to make a real solar cell."

However, the researchers pointed out that they have only made high-efficiency solar cells in the laboratory, but more in-depth research is needed to mass-produce a new generation of cheap and reliable solar cells.