Optofluidics for energy applications.
© 2011 EPFL
Optofluidics has developed unique tools and techniques for enabling the simultaneous delivery of light and fluids with microscopic precision.
In this Review, Prof. Demetri Psaltis (LO - Optics Laboratory), in collaboration with researchers of Cornell and Toronto University, describe the possibilities for applying optofluidics to the field of energy. They focus in particular on optofluidic opportunities in sunlight-based fuel production in photobioreactors and photocatalytic systems, as well as optofluidically enabled solar energy collection and control. They then provide a series of physical and scaling arguments that demonstrate the potential benefits of incorporating optofluidic elements into energy systems. Throughout the Review they draw attention to the ways in which optofluidics must evolve to enable the up-scaling required to impact the energy field.
David Erickson,David Sinton & Demetri Psaltis, Nature Photonics, doi:10.1038/nphoton.2011.209 (2011)