IISc can teach you how to trap more sunlight falling on your solar panels

The trick in solar photo voltaic energy business is to get more and more of sunlight (not heat, by the way) to fall on the solar panels. The more the sunlight, the more the electricity the panels will produce.  

Solar cells and module manufacturers have been grappling with this problem. In the market, the most basic method is as anti-reflective coating. However, there are other ways of doing it, such as by using dispersed metal particles, nano structured electrodes, nano structured back electrodes using nano imprinting, and bonding nano structured film to transparent substrates. 

The problem with these methods is that they are expensive, less scale-able and less efficient.  

Now, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, have come with up a new, cost-effective method of trapping more sunlight. This technology provides substantially transparent nanostructure substrate with dome shaped protrusions for enhanced light trapping and better light management, according to IISc. It is cost-effective because it does not use expensive metals and does not require additional fabrication facility. “It is also found to exhibit improved internal quantum efficiency,” says IISc. 

IISc is willing to transfer this technology to the industry. 

Those interested might contact: 

Mr. Venkat Rama Rao Adhikari  

Technology Licensing Manager  

Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Licensing  

E-mail: venkatadhikari@iisc.ac.in  

Mobile: 8220260777 

IISc has technology for increasing porosity of cell walls so as to make drug delivery easier

The challenge in medicine is to get the drugs to where it matters, which is inside the cells. However, the drug molecules have to pass through the cell walls (membrane). Often the pores in the cell walls are too small for the drug molecules to enter.  

Scientists have been grappling with this problem for long. There are several ways of doing this, such as ‘molecular motors’, deformability cytometry, acoustics, lasers and electric field, but all these help expand the pores only up to about 50 nm.  

Now, Indian Institute of Science has developed a technology that can increase the pores so big as to permit molecules of 100 mn size. “This method avoids lysis of cells and also it is label-free with high throughput,” says IISc. 

The institute has filed for a patent and is seeking a commercial partner for licencing and development of this technology. 

Those interested could contact: 

Mr. Venkat Rama Rao Adhikari  

Technology Licensing Manager  

Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Licensing  

E-mail: venkatadhikari@iisc.ac.in  

Mobile: 8220260777 

Big battery breakthrough at IIT-Madras: They have made an Iron ion battery

(Note: This is not yet a technology offered to the industry.) 

Lithium-ion batteries of various chemistries rule the market today, but since Lithium (and the Cobalt that is also needed) is scarce and costly, scientists have been researching with other metals. Some advancement has been achieved in Sodium ion batteries by the Central Electro-chemical Research Institute, Karakudi.  

IIT-Madras may have achieved a big breakthrough here. Scientists led by Prof Ramaprabhu have developed an Iron ion battery which “can potentially compete with the lead-acid batteries due to its energy density, provided the stability and reversability aspects are worked out”, according to Dr Tata Narasinga Rao, Scientist at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials, Hyderabad.  

IITM scientists have used mild steel (composed of 99.3% of Iron, 0.15% of carbon and 0.52% of manganese), instead of pure iron. The scientists say that the carbon in the steel allowed easy removal of electrons required for better flow of electrons. Hence, they preferred steel over pure iron for making a battery. For the cathode, they used vanadium pentoxide, which allows easy movement of iron ions due to large gap between its layers. The scientists have used iron perchlorate hydrate dissolved in non-inflammable ether as the electrolyte. 

Scientists next tested various attributes of this rechargeable battery such as energy storage, percentage of energy loss at various cycles and so on. They found that iron ion batteries have a specific capacity of 207 milliampere hour per gram at a current density of 30 milliampere per gram. The rechargeable batteries lose some energy efficiency after each cycle of chargingrecharging, for this newly constructed iron battery this loss was found to be 54.5% after 50 cycles and 47% after 80 cycles. 

For further information, look up: https://bit.ly/2VxrlxN 

IIT Hyderabad invents cellulose based high absorbency sanitary napkins

This is truly a very interesting, high commercial value technology – female hygiene products that are bio-degradeable, eco-friendly, non-cancer causing. 

IIT Hyderabad has come up with an invention of biocompabible polymer matrix for female hygiene products. The conventional sanitary napkins and tampons use what are known as super-absorbent polymers (SAP) which are got from petroleum—therefore, they are not biodegradeable and could cause cancer. 

IIT Hyderbad has invented a cellulose acetata-based, electrospun nano fibres which is significantly higher absorbent in all the uses.  

Use of electrospun CA nanofibers in place of micron size fabric in commercial female sanitary napkins not only enhances the absorption properties, mechanical strength and remarkably reduces residual percentage but also eliminates the use of SAP' without compromising its performance. This in turn may pave the way to resolve many health and environmental issues related with the use non-biodegradable SAP. 

IIT Hyderabad has put out plenty of scientific information. Check it out in this URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2016016704A2/en 

The IIT had called for Expression of Interest for buying this technology. The last date for it is over, but interested parties may reach out to them to see if it is still available.