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The Next Generation of Photovoltaics, Semiconductors and Silicon Chips Inspired by Marine Sponges?
Background
Sponges may look like soft blobs but they actually are made of a highly complex arrangement of nanoscale glass-like structures. The precision with which sponges synthesize these silica-based structures exceeds all present day human capabilities in nanoscale technology.
News
Biologists have identified the molecular mechanisms by which marine sponges synthesize their silica skeletons. They are now translating these mechanisms to develop new approaches for low-cost synthesis of semiconductors.
Compared to current manufacturing practices, the methods they have developed operate at low temperature and use no harmful or caustic chemicals. Materials with novel structures and electronic properties are being produced. Results are especially encouraging for lowering manufacturing costs and improving energy efficiency of solar energy (photovoltaic) converters.
Lucent Technologies and Bell Laboratories are all industrial partners on the project, which is funded in large part by California Sea Grant.
Lead Investigators
Daniel E. Morse, Director of UCSB-MIT-Caltech Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies and professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at UC Santa Barbara, T. 805-893-7442; -8982
NOAA's California Sea Grant College Program is a statewide, multi-university program of marine research, extension services, and education activities administered by the University of California. It is headquartered at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. The National Sea Grant College Program is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce.
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