Paint on solar cells

A team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame has made a major advance toward pain on solar cells with an inexpensive “solar paint” that uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy. “The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we’ve reached so far is 1 percent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 percent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells,” explains Kamat.

“By incorporating power-producing nanoparticles, called quantum dots, into a spreadable compound, we’ve made a one-coat solar paint that can be applied to any conductive surface without special equipment.”

The team’s search for the new material, described in the journal ACS Nano, centered on nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide, which were coated with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide. The particles were then suspended in a water-alcohol mixture to create a paste.

When the paste was brushed onto a transparent conducting material and exposed to light, it created electricity.

ACS Nano – Sun-Believable Solar Paint. A Transformative One-Step Approach for Designing Nanocrystalline Solar Cells

“But this paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future.”

“That’s why we’ve christened the new paint, Sun-Believable,” he adds.

Kamat and his team also plan to study ways to improve the stability of the new material.

A transformative approach is required to meet the demand of economically viable solar cell technology. By making use of recent advances in semiconductor nanocrystal research, we have now developed a one-coat solar paint for designing quantum dot solar cells. A binder-free paste consisting of CdS, CdSe, and TiO2 semiconductor nanoparticles was prepared and applied to conducting glass surface and annealed at 473 K. The photoconversion behavior of these semiconductor film electrodes was evaluated in a photoelectrochemical cell consisting of graphene–Cu2S counter electrode and sulfide/polysulfide redox couple. Open-circuit voltage as high as 600 mV and short circuit current of 3.1 mA/cm2 were obtained with CdS/TiO2–CdSe/TiO2 electrodes. A power conversion efficiency exceeding 1% has been obtained for solar cells constructed using the simple conventional paint brush approach under ambient conditions. Whereas further improvements are necessary to develop strategies for large area, all solid state devices, this initial effort to prepare solar paint offers the advantages of simple design and economically viable next generation solar cells.

2 pages of supplemental information

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