CAM NEWS




Center for Advanced Materials


			Center News
			CAM Research in recent publications
	The work of Dr. Alex Freundlich and his Photovoltaics & Nanostructures Laboratory is referenced liberally in this topic review article in the inaugural issue of Recent Patents on Nanotechnology:
			Recent Progress in Inorganic Solar Cells Using Quantum Structures Seung Y. Myong ABSTRACT - Thermalization of photogenerated carriers in bulk materials is the main bottleneck for the conversion efficiency of conventional inorganic solar cells. Furthermore, despite extensive research, the achieved conversion efficiency is nearly saturated during the last decade. Therefore, new device concepts to break through the efficiency barrier are highly requested. Nanotechnologies are the building blocks for next-generation solar cells, because low-dimensional quantum structures can possibly reduce thermalization and extend the light absorption range. Hereafter, recently invented inorganic solar cells using quantum structures will be reviewed. Click here for FULL article (PDF) Related CAM technologies


	CAM's In-Situ Resource Utilization Lunar Solar Cell Manufacturing project is highlighted as a less costly alternative to supplying energy needs for NASA's proposed Lunar Base in the February 5th edition of Chemical & Engineering News:
			NASA Gets Ready To Revisit The Moon Susan R. Morrissey "...One way to avoid the material transport cost would be to use the moon's resources to build the solar panels on-site. That's exactly what a research group led by Alex Ignatiev, director of the Center for Advanced Materials at the University of Houston, is working on. Ignatiev's approach takes advantage of two key lunar resources: the ultra-high-vacuum environment and the lunar rocks and soil. It turns out that the vacuum on the moon is comparable with the best vacuum chambers found on Earth; that is, the vacuum is at about 10-15 atm. Also, the lunar rocks are composed of oxides that include silicon dioxide from which silicon can be extracted..." Click here for FULL article (HTML) CAM ISRU Project (PDF)

	Work being conducted by CAM Spin-off company Integrated Micro Sensors to significantly increase the sensitivity of microchannel plates was reported on recently (December 2006) in NASA Tech Briefs:
			Coating MCPs With AlN and GaN A development effort underway at the time of reporting the information for this article is devoted to increasing the sensitivity of microchannel plates (MCPs) as detectors of photons and ions by coating the MCPs with nitrides of elements in period III of the periodic table. Conventional MCPs are relatively insensitive to slowly moving, large-mass ions — for example, ions of biomolecules under analysis in mass spectrometers. The idea underlying this development is to coat an MCP to reduce its work function (decrease its electron affinity) in order to increase both (1) the emission of electrons in response to impingement of low-energy, large-mass ions and (2) the multiplying effect of secondary electron emission. Click here for FULL article (HTML)



			NEW Center Projects
		The Center for Advanced Materials has joined other University of Houston researchers in establishing the Space Research Cluster - SpaRC:
			University of Houston Space Research Cluster With ties to NASA’s Manned Flight Program from its inception, the University of Houston is committed to the Agency’s Exploration Initiative. UH’s Space Research Cluster represents a uniquely diverse portfolio of space-related R&D and experience: The University’s research has supported space flight over 4 decades, and UH remains the only university to develop and fly a complex primary research payload aboard the Space Shuttle. SpaRC’s mission is to advance the University’s historic strengths in space research, particularly in the continued collaboration with the Johnson Space Center.




			Center for Advaced Materials
			724 Science & Research Building One
			Houston, Texas 77204-5004
			713-743-3621

NASA Gets Ready To Revisit The Moon

Susan R. Morrissey