Dependable information from the Chemical Enquiries Help Desk in 48 hours.  Each month library staff look at one of the many enquiries received and highlight selected resources, including the Virtual Library, that provide relevant answers.  

The enquiry this month 

• What are photovoltaics?  

This is the technology that generates electrical power from semiconductors when they are illuminated by photons and is also known as solar power.        

The RSC Virtual Library's full text e-books collections have a number of titles of interest:

Knovel:   Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering with sections including: The Physics of the Solar Cell and Financing PV Growth

Referex:  Renewable Energy  with sections such as: Photovoltaic conversion  and Photovoltaic power production

Springer: Springer Handbook of Electronic and Photonic Materials  sections e.g. Optoelectronic Devices and Materials  and Solar Cells and Photovoltaics

EBSCO  has the database Environment Complete  which gives access to hundreds of full text e-journals with environment focussed articles, relevant articles include:

Roping the Sun Hornyak, Tim. Scientific American, Jul 2008, Vol. 299 Issue 1, p22

An analysis of building energy performances and benefits using solar façades Li, D. H. W.; Lam, T. N. T.. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers -- Part A -- Power & Energy, May2008, Vol. 222 Issue 3, p299-308

Utilization of Solar Radiation in High Energy Intensive of the World by PV System. By: Rahoma, U. Ali. American Journal of Environmental Sciences, 2008, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p121-128

As part of the services of the Chemical Enquiries Help Desk we can supplement the information above with references retrieved from Chemical Abstracts, Scopus, Web of Science.

Members can carry out their own high quality research from the Virtual Library simply by logging in to a resource with their membership number and password.