Sep
5
Spray On Materials For Building Solar Cells
September 5, 2013 | 1 Comment
University of Alberta researcher Jillian Buriak, a chemistry professor and senior research officer of the National Institute for Nanotechnology and her team have designed nanoparticles that absorb light and conduct electricity from two very common elements: phosphorus and zinc.
Jillian Buriak (center) worked with post-doctoral fellows Erik Luber (right) and Hosnay Mobarok to create nanoparticles that could lead to printable or spray-on solar cells.
Both materials are more plentiful than scarce materials such as cadmium and are free from manufacturing restrictions imposed on lead-based nanoparticles. They can be used to make inexpensive and easily manufactured nanoparticle-based solar cells. Buriak and her team are now experimenting with the nanoparticles, spray-coating them onto large solar cells to test their efficiency.
The team’s work results have been published in a paper ay the American Chemical Society’s ACS Nano.
The discovery is reported to be several years in the making. The work could be an important step forward in making solar power more accessible to parts of the world that are off the traditional electricity grid or face high power costs, such as the Canadian North.
Buriak said, “Half the world already lives off the grid, and with demand for electrical power expected to double by the year 2050, it is important that renewable energy sources like solar power are made more affordable by lowering the costs of manufacturing.”
Buriak’s research supports a promising approach of making solar cells cheaply using mass manufacturing methods like roll-to-roll printing such as newspaper presses or spray-coating similar to automotive painting.
Nano Particle Solar Cell Artists Rendering. Click image for the largest view.
“Nanoparticle-based ‘inks’ could be used to literally paint or print solar cells or precise compositions,” Buriak said.
Buriak collaborated with U of A post-doctoral fellows Erik Luber of the U of A Faculty of Engineering and Hosnay Mobarok of the Faculty of Science to create the nanoparticles. The team was able to develop a synthetic method to make zinc phosphide nanoparticles, and demonstrated that the particles can be dissolved to form an ink and processed to make thin films that are responsive to light.
The team has applied for a provisional patent and has secured funding to enable the next step to scale up manufacture.
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It is gratifying to see that Hosnay Mobarok has found something useful to do after surrendering the Presidency of Egypt.