Nanoparticle Ink Could Print Solar Cells Like Newspaper
His team has only developed a solar cell prototype at 1% efficiency, but in order to make the product commercially viable, they need to achieve 10% efficiencies, which Korgel believes could be possible within the next 3-5 years.
Not only could the inks, which are semi-transparent be printed on a roll-to-roll printing process on a plastic substrate or stainless steel, they could also be used on windows that double up as solar cells. Korgel says the prospect of being able to paint the "inks" onto a rooftop or building is not far-fetched - "you would have to paint the light-absorbing material and a few other layers as well," he concludes.
They recently demonstrated proof-of-concept in a recent issue of "Journal of the American Chemical Society". The work has attracted the interest of industrial partners.
Innovalight recently installed a system to inkjet print silicon-ink, which they claim can halve the number of costly manufacturing processes required to produce highly efficient solar cells.
Whilst researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a low-cost solution processing method for CIGS-based solar cells . They used hydrazine as the solvent to dissolve copper sulfide and indium selenide in order to form the constituents for the copper-indium-diselenide material. Their material, which is simply dissolved into a liquid, can be easily painted or coated evenly onto a surface and baked. The solar cells achieved over 9% efficiency in the lab.
For more attend Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics USA 2009 and read Thin Film Photovoltaics & Batteries 2009-2029.