Eco Factor: Low-cost highly efficient solar cells to be developed using better technology.
Researchers at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Chemistry Department have developed two novel technologies that can not only make solar cells inexpensive but can also make them highly efficient. The Earth receives more solar energy in one hour than the entire planet currently consumes in a year. However, due to the lack inexpensive means to transform that energy into usable form, we depend more on fossil fuels rather than clean energy from the sun.
Dye-sensitized solar cells developed in the early ‘90s by Professor Michael Graetzel do offer a ray of hope, but even these electrochemical cells rely on an electrolyte that is highly corrosive and a cathode that is covered with platinum, a material that is expensive, non-transparent and rare.
The new research carried out UQAM researchers aims to better the credentials of these electrochemical cells that make use of new molecules created in the laboratory for the electrolyte. The resulting electrolyte gel is transparent and non-corrosive. For the cathode, the platinum can be replaced by cobalt sulphide, which is far less expensive and more efficient.
Via: Science Daily
