'Black diamond' doubles solar cell efficiency

A European research team has created ‘black diamond’ — a material capable of absorbing solar radiation by maintaining the same physical properties of diamonds. Developed by the ProME³ThE²US² project within the European Commission’s FP7 framework, the technology has the potential to enable over 50% efficiency in solar concentration systems.

Diamonds satisfy two of the three conditions necessary for solar radiation capture — they can withstand extremely high temperatures and they have the ability to emit electrons efficiently. But because of their transparency, they are unable to adequately interact with sunlight.

Black diamond fulfils this third condition and can harness solar radiation at temperatures up to 1000°C. The low-cost material is exploitable for other electronic applications outside of solar technology and the ProME³ThE²US² team is now inviting other industries to discover its benefits.

“Solar radiation is the largest energy source we have on Earth,” said project coordinator Dr Daniele M Trucchi. “Its more efficient and diffused exploitation means a higher energy availability with a minimal contribution to CO₂ formation.”