A new technology developed by a research team of the Department of Materials Science, University of Milan-Bicocca, in collaboration with the group of Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) and from UbiQD Company, will allow to turn windows into solar panels, providing a further tool for the realization of zero energy buildings.

The new glasses realized by the research group are actually a new type of luminescent solar concentrators (LSC): plastic or glass plates in which are embedded special nanoparticles that absorb sunlight and re-emit it within the slab. Then small solar cells placed along the perimeter of the window collect the trapped light, converting it into electricity.

Among the advantages of this new technology, which is ready to be transferred to the market, is the fact that the glasses do not contain toxic metals such as cadmium or lead; they are also much more efficient than previous prototypes because the absorption of light occurs on all the spectrum and not only on some wavelengths. In addition they are nearly colorless, thus improving the aesthetic impact and the livability of the buildings.

The study, "Highly efficient large-area colorless luminescent solar concentrators using heavy-metal-free colloidal quantum dots", is published on the Nature Nanotechnology journal.

For more information see the University of Milano-Bicocca website.