>> ON EARTH,
IF THE PARTICLES
ARE LARGE ENOUGH
FOR US TO SEE THEM,
EVEN UNDER
A STANDARD MICROSCOPE,
THEY'RE GONNA SINK.
AND WHEN THEY SINK
ON THE BOTTOM,
WE LOSE A LOT OF INFORMATION.
AND WE WOULD RATHER,
MUCH RATHER IN TERMS
OF DISCOVERING FUNDAMENTAL
PHYSICAL MECHANISMS,
THEY NEED TO STAY SUSPENDED,
AND WE NEED TO OBSERVE THEM
IN THE SUSPENSION
FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME
TO MAKE SURE THEY'RE STABLE,
TO MAKE SURE THE RESULTS
ARE REPEATABLE.
AND EXPERIMENTS
ON THE SPACE STATION
HELP ENABLE THOSE TYPES
OF DISCOVERIES
UNDER THOSE, UH, OBSERVATIONS
THAT ARE NOT MASKED,
THAT ARE NOT HINDERED
BY GRAVITY.
CURRENTLY RIGHT NOW
WE ARE LOOKING AT
FUNDAMENTAL INTERACTIONS
BETWEEN NANOPARTICLES
AND MICROPARTICLES.
ONCE WE UNDERSTAND
THOSE FUNDAMENTAL MECHANISMS--
FOR EXAMPLE,
THERE'S A CERTAIN BALANCE
A CERTAIN RECIPE
OF MICROPARTICLES
AND NANOPARTICLES
WHERE THE NANOPARTICLES
WILL FORM A HALO
SIMILAR TO A MOBILE
CHARGE BARRIER.
AND IF YOU HAVE IT IN BALANCE
IN TERMS OF THE pH FOR EXAMPLE
OR THE NANOPARTICLE
CONCENTRATION,
THEN THINGS DON'T HAPPEN
AS EXPECTED.
MAYBE THEY ADHERE
TO THE PARTICLE.
MAYBE THEY DISSOCIATE
AND MOVE AWAY,
AND THEN OTHER MICROPARTICLES
INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER
AND CONGLOMERATE,
AND WE DON'T WANT THAT.
SO WE'RE CURRENTLY--
WE HAVEN'T LOOKED AT
SPECIALIZED MICROPARTICLES
AND NANOPARTICLES YET,
BECAUSE WE'RE STILL LOOKING
AT THE FUNDAMENTAL MECHANISMS
UNDER, WE'LL SAY,
SIMPLIFIED PARTICLES.
WE WANT TO START SIMPLE FIRST
BEFORE WE MOVE ON
TO THESE SPECIALIZED PARTICLES.
ONE AREA WE WOULD LIKE
TO APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE
IS TOWARDS, UM,
QUANTUM DOT SOLAR CELLS.
WHY WE ARE INTERESTED
IN THAT TYPE OF SOLAR CELL
IS FIRST THE STANDARD
SILICON-BASED SOLAR CELL,
IT'S EFFICIENCY THEORETICALLY
CAN MAX OUT AROUND 30-33%.
QUANTUM DOT SOLAR CELLS,
ON THE OTHER HAND,
THEIR EFFICIENCY CAN MAX OUT
ABOVE 50%,
I THINK AROUND 53%.
CURRENTLY, THE CURRENT
STATE OF THE ART
OF QUANTUM DOT SOLAR CELLS,
WE'RE AROUND 9%.
AND THERE'S CHALLENGES
ASSOCIATED WITH THAT.
AND ONE OF THE CHALLENGES
IS ARRANGING THE QUANTUM DOTS
RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER
AND RELATIVE TO
OTHER STRUCTURES.
AND ONCE YOU CAN MASTER
WHERE THOSE QUANTUM DOTS ARE
WITHIN THAT CELL STRUCTURE,
THEN THE EFFICIENCY WILL GO UP.
SO WE HOPE TO USE
THE KNOWLEDGE THAT WE GAIN
FROM OUR INTERNATIONAL
SPACE STATION EXPERIMENTS
AND THEN EVENTUALLY APPLY
THAT FUNDAMENTAL
COLLOIDAL INTERACTION
TO THE SOLAR CELLS,
AND WE'LL APPLY THEM LATER ON
IN OUR RESEARCH ON EARTH.
OUR TEAM AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE,
IN COLLABORATION WITH
ADVANCED COLLOIDS EXPERIMENTS
AT GLENN,
WE HAVE A TEAM WITHIN
THE [ INDISTINCT ]
RENEWABLE ENERGY CENTER,
WHERE THEY WORK ON
ROLL-TO-ROLL FABRICATION,
INCLUDING SPRAY DEPOSITION
TECHNIQUES OF SOLAR CELLS.
SO WHEN WE HAVE
A FUNDAMENTAL DISCOVERY
BASED ON OUR EXPERIMENTS
ON THE INTERNATIONAL
SPACE STATION,
WE HOPE TO APPLY THIS
TOWARDS THESE ROLL-TO-ROLL
MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES.
AND ROLL-TO-ROLL
MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES
MAKES THE FABRICATION SIMPLE,
STRAIGHTFORWARD, LESS EXPENSIVE,
AND CAN BE MASS-PRODUCED,
SO WE CAN GET IT OUT THERE
TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
THIS RESEARCH
WOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE
WITHOUT THE INVOLVEMENT
OF THE EPSCoR PROGRAM
AND EVEN MORE SPECIFICALLY
THE KENTUCKY
NASA EPSCoR PROGRAM,
AS THEY'VE HELPED US
WITH OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
AS WELL AS FACILITATING
THIS REASEARCH, UM,
AND MOVING FORWARD WITH THIS
AND HELPING WITH
OUR COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN
THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY,
WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY,
AND OTHER RESEARCHERS
WITHIN THE STATE
TO SORT OF, UM, BROADLY EDUCATE
EVERYONE ABOUT THE IMPACT
OF COLLOID SCIENCE
AS WELL AS THE RESEARCH
ACTIVITIES GOING ON
ON THE INTERNATIONAL
SPACE STATION.
PART OF THE MISSION OF EPSCoR
AND THE KENTUCKY
NASA EPSCoR PROGRAM
IS NOT ONLY TO CONDUCT RESEARCH,
BUT ALSO TO EXPAND
THE FACILITIES
AND RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE
WITHIN OUR STATE
AND OF COURSE
AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL.
SO WE'VE BEEN
ACQUIRING EQUIPMENT.
FOR EXAMPLE,
WE GOT A CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE
THAT OF COURSE HELPS US OBSERVE
THESE COLLOIDAL INTERACTIONS.
WE'VE HAD COLLEAGUES
USE THIS EQUIPMENT AS WELL
AND BOLSTER THEIR RESEARCH.
UM, SO NOT ONLY DOES IT IMPACT
OUR RESEARCH MISSION WITH NASA
AND WITH THE ADVANCED
COLLOIDS EXPERIMENTS,
BUT THE INFRASTRUCTURE
THAT IT BUILT
TO MAKE OUR RESEARCH POSSIBLE
ALSO IMPACTS THE RESEARCHERS
WITHIN OUR STATES.