Spray-on solar cell manufacturing

http://www.trnmag.com/Roundup/2005/TRN_Research_News_Roundup_9-26-05.html#sprayonsolar


Spray-on solar cell manufacturing

Researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have
developed a low-cost spray-on manufacturing technique for making solar
cells.

The solar cells have an energy conversion efficiency of five percent. This
is considerably lower than traditional silicon wafer solar cells, which
have efficiencies of up to 30 percent, but the much simpler manufacturing
process has the potential to lower the cost per kilowatt, according to the
researchers.

The key component, which is applied by spraying, is a mix of copper indium
sulfide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles sandwiched between a thin film
of titanium dioxide and a layer of titanium dioxide nanocrystals. The
copper indium sulfide nanoparticles absorb sunlight and the titanium
dioxide nanoparticles convert photons to electrons.

Other researchers have combined organic dyes with titanium dioxide to make
solar cells, but these organic materials degrade more readily when exposed
to moisture and oxygen than copper indium sulfide.

The technique could make solar cells an economically competitive form of
electricity generation, according to the researchers

(Nanocomposite Three-dimensional Solar Cells Obtained by Chemical Spray
Deposition, Nano Letters, September 14, 2005)