Mining Fool's Gold for Solar

Cyrus Wadia, faculty member at the LBNL and RAEL, is using the abundant pyrite (also called fool's gold) to grow nanocrystals for cheaper photovoltaics. But instead of digging for false promises, he is making pure nano­particles of the compound from iron and sulfur salts to turn fool's gold into real treasure: an inexpensive solar cell.His promising research was featured in a recent MIT Technology Review.