Nanotech microscope boosts solar research

Queensland University of Technology is home to a microscope being used to develop efficient and cheap plastic solar cells to charge laptops and mobile phones.

The $1.5 million German-engineered scanning probe microscope is said to be the only one of its kind in Queensland, with four others in Australia in NSW.

Lead researcher associate prof Nunzio Motta said the microscope is equipped with a tiny metallic tip to see individual atoms, allowing precision better than a hundredth of a nanometre.

Prof Motta, a principal research fellow with the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, said the microscope would accelerate QUT’s efforts to study new materials with atomic resolution. QUT researchers have started using the microscope to improve plastic solar cells by mixing them with tiny tubes of highly conductive carbon, called nanotubes, which are 100 times smaller than a strand of human hair.

“At the moment the plastic solar cells are quite inefficient, but they are already used in niche markets for very low power portable applications,” Prof Motta said.

“We are aiming to improve the efficiency of these plastic solar cells by studying the microscopic structure of the material. If we can do that, the advantages would be enormous. Plastic solar cells could generate enough energy not only to recharge the batteries of laptops and mobiles, but even to obtain power from canopies on parking areas and on stadiums.”

He said the microscope is equipped with sensitive surface probes, including two kinds of atomic force microscopes, an X-ray electron spectrometer and an electron microscope.

Samples used in the microscope can be heated up to 1300°C and gases introduced through a special valve system to test how surface atoms react in different environments. To keep surfaces clean and to observe their atomic composition, the microscope is enclosed in a stainless steel evacuated vessel, where the pressure is similar to that found in outer space.

Researchers also will be using the microscope to create a new class of solar-powered nanosensors capable of detecting pollution and monitoring the environment in remote areas.

The microscope, which received $800,000 in funding from the Australian Research Council, will be managed within the QUT-based Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility Linked Laboratory.

Scientists from a consortium of universities that helped fund the microscope would use it for research, including Flinders, the University of Queensland, Griffith, and Roma Tor Vergata University in Italy.

The microscope will be moved to QUT’s $230 million Science and Engineering Centre when it opens in 2012.