Solar ♦ news digest production at industrial levels.
The research, just published in Material Letters, also concluded this approach will work with CZTS (copper zinc tin sulphide). This a compound is of significant interest for solar cells due to its excellent optical properties and the fact the materials in the compound are cheap and environmentally friendly.
“This is a big win for us. We’ve been working toward this milestone since 2011 when we first started our research on alternative materials for thin-film photovoltaics at imec/imomec,” says Marc Meuris, program manager Solliance of the alternative thin-film PV program. “Our efficiencies are the highest in Europe and approaching the world record for this type of thin-film solar cells, and we look forward to further advancing R&D to help bringing to market sustainable energy sources.”
The sputtering of the copper, zinc and tin layers was performed at Flamac (Gent), and the international glass manufacturer AGC delivered Molybdenum-on-glass substrates.
Imec’s thin-film solar cell activities at imomec (imec’s associated laboratory at the university of Hasselt) are integrated in the Solliance cross-border collaboration platform, and the research was partially supported by the Flemish ‘Strategisch Initiatief Materialen’ (SIM) SoPPoM program.
Slashing the cost of solar cells with antifreeze
The combination of using a continuous flow reactor, which is much faster than batch mode synthesis, commonly used for CIGS, and the use of cheap environmentally friendly materials promises to cut costs
A process combining some comparatively cheap materials and the antifreeze used in vehicles could make cheaper solar cells that avoid toxic compounds, while further expanding the use of solar energy.
And when perfected, this approach might also cook up the solar cells in a microwave oven similar to the one in most kitchens.
Engineers at Oregon State University have determined that ethylene glycol, commonly used in antifreeze products, can be a low-cost solvent that functions well in a “continuous flow” reactor, an approach to making thin-film solar cells that is easily scaled up for mass
SEM micrograph of solar CZTS nanoparticle (Credit:OSU)
This approach is also faster - many companies still use “batch mode” synthesis to produce CIGS nanoparticles, a process that can ultimately take up to a full day, compared to about half an hour with a continuous flow reactor. The additional speed of such reactors will further reduce final costs.
“For large-scale industrial production, all of these factors - cost of materials, speed, quality control - can translate into money,” Herman points out. “The approach we’re using should provide high-quality solar cells at a lower cost.”
The performance of CZTS and CZTSe (copper zinc July 2013
www.compoundsemiconductor.net 131
“The global use of solar energy may be held back if the materials we use to produce solar cells are too expensive or require the use of toxic chemicals in production,” says Greg Herman, an associate professor in the OSU School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering. “We need technologies that use abundant, inexpensive materials, preferably ones that can be mined in the U.S. This process offers that.”
By contrast, many solar cells today are made with CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide). Indium is comparatively rare and costly, and mostly produced in China. Last year, the prices of indium and gallium used in CIGS solar cells were about 275 times higher than the zinc used in CZTS cells.
The technology being developed at OSU uses ethylene glycol in meso-fluidic reactors that can offer precise control of temperature, reaction time, and mass transport to yield better crystalline quality and high uniformity of the nanoparticles that comprise the solar cell - all factors which improve quality control and performance.
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