Study of Solar Cells and Their Capabilities

Joseph Brewer

Solar energy is one of the best sources of renewable energy available. In the very near future, Creighton University will be investing $1.2 million dollars to install solar panels. Our group was responsible for looking into some background information about the possible solar panel technologies. We looked at possible losses in efficiency due to both the angle of the incident photons and the temperature of the cell. We then created an experimental setup where we could measure both current and voltage coming out of these cells. Using our proposed experimental setup, we hope to ascertain which one of the three major types of solar cell technologies (monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous thin-film) will prove to be the best technology for us here at Creighton.

Relaxation of dynamic clusters in aqueous sugar solutions: A light scattering study

Victor Ogunjimi

In analyzing the glass transition of aqueous sugar solutions we look at the exponential and non-exponential components of the relaxation around a critical temperature. The shift in the autocorrelation curve as temperature and concentration are varied is also discussed. The study is done using photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). Work done on glucose solutions is used as background in envisioning glass transition of aqueous maltose and sucrose solutions.