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356 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: An Opportunity to Achieve Low-cost Clean Energy
Mr. Raj Kamal Yadav*
Email: rajkamalyadavo1@gmail.com
What is this, sir? Abhinav asked me when I was trying to unlock my hostel room while holding a box in the other hand. “A sample, which I have to send for characterization,” I replied as I entered my room.
“Oh! This looks like powder,” Abhinav said taking the sample box in his hand. He was my neighbour in the hostel and pursuing BCA from the University of Allahabad.
“No, this is nanopowder,” I replied.
Abhinav, looking at the sample eagerly, asked, “How did you know that it is a nanopowder?”
I said while opening my laptop, “It was confirmed by the images of samples recorded by SEM and TEM,”
“What are this SEM and TEM?” Abhinav asked
surprised.
“SEM is an abbreviation for scanning electron
microscope and TEM is of transmission electron microscope and they are used to observe small objects,” I replied.
“Oh, just like an optical microscope,”Abhinav responded, astonished. “Yes, but an optical microscope uses a
light beam whereas an electron microscope uses an electron beam, due to which electron microscope gives highly magnified image than optical microscope. In SEM, electron beam scans over the surface of the sample and gives three-dimensional morphological image of the sample while in TEM electron beam passes through the thin sample and provides a two-dimensional projection of the sample,” I explained.
* Mr. Raj Kamal Yadav, PhD Scholar from the University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, is pursuing his research on “Synthesis Characterization and Application of ZnO Nanoparticles in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells”. His popular science story entitled “Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: An Opportunity to Achieve Low-Cost Clean Energy” has been selected for AWSAR Award.