“We are getting closer to the alchemists’ dream”: Swiss researchers will be able to generate electricity with glass

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Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne have turned a glass into an electric generator. The research could form the basis of energy generation technologies that could be integrated into windows, EPFL announced on Monday.

To do this, the researchers irradiated tellurite glass with a laser called a femtosecond laser. This is a laser that emits pulses of light with a duration in the femtosecond range, that is, lasting only a few quadrillionths of a second.

“We actually transform the materials into something else.”

This created photoconductive patterns on the glass surface; This means they can convert light into electrical energy. When light falls through this glass, electricity is generated. The conversion of light to electricity remained stable for months, the researchers reported in the journal “Physical Review Applied.”

“We are actually transforming the materials into something else, perhaps approaching the alchemists’ dream,” study leader Yves Bellouard was quoted as saying in the EPFL statement. “The interesting thing about this technology is that no additional materials are required for the process,” the researcher continues. (SDA)

Source : Blick