Movies Can Boost Solar Power
蓝光碟里的太阳能
电影、电视剧、纪录片、动画片……所有这些刻录在蓝光碟上的图案或可用于促进光伏能效的提升。
撰文/播音:大卫·别洛(David Biello)
翻译:南の生
审校:李轩
Ever looked at the etching of a Blu-ray disc? It's oddly beautiful, refracting light like a rainbow while also offering copious digital storage.
观察过蓝光碟的蚀刻纹吗?它奇异瑰丽,折射光线如虹,同时可以存储丰富的数据。
Turns out that pattern isn't just beautiful in the light, it's also useful when it comes to the light. Because the particular structure of a typical Blu-ray disc happens to be one that boosts the light absorbing ability of photovoltaics. That's according to a study in the journal Nature Communications. [Alexander J. Smith, Repurposing Blu-ray movie discs as quasi-random nanoimprinting templates for photon management]
不过,那图案在光线之下并非空有美貌,它也有着意想不到的巨大作用。因为根据《自然-通讯》(Nature Communications)杂志上的一项研究,未写入的蓝光碟的独特构造提高光伏电池的吸光能力。
The semi-random pattern of microscopic bumps and indents that store a movie on a Blu-ray disc also helps solar cells absorb light by spreading it around more widely within the cell—where a greater percentage of it is then available to generate a current.
存有电影的蓝光碟的结构也可以帮助提高吸光比率。写入数据后,蓝光碟上会留下半随机模式的微小凹槽,这种结构可以让光线在电池中更大范围地扩散,从而增大吸光比率形成电流。
Researchers at Northwestern University made the discovery by transferring the pattern of the Jackie Chan movie Supercop to the top of a plastic solar cell. They found, to their surprise, that the Supercopped solar cell boosted performance by more than 20 percent.
西北大学的研究人员通过将成龙的电影《超级警察》(Supercop)的蓝光碟上的图案复刻到一块聚合物太阳能电池上,他们惊奇地发现,《超级警察》版太阳能电池的性能增幅超过了20%。
Of course, Supercop is not a special movie, except maybe to hardcore Chan fans. Dramas, documentaries and even cartoons worked just as well. Which means all that Blu-ray disc-making prowess could get applied to a new purpose: clean power.
《超级警察》当然不是一部特殊的电影,除了对于成龙的铁杆粉。任何电视剧、纪录片甚至动画片都同样有效。这意味着制作蓝光碟的先进技术可以应用于一个新目标:清洁能源。