Breakthrough for new solar technology

The development of ultra-thin photovoltaic solar panels known as ‘nanocrystal cells’ has passed a ‘scientific milestone’ at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory according to reports, which could see the application reaching market sooner than anticipated.

Researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed the first ultra-thin solar cells comprised entirely of inorganic nanocrystals and spin-cast from solution. These dual nanocrystal solar cells are as cheap and easy to make as solar cells made from organic polymers and offer the added advantage of being stable in air because they contain no organic materials.

The technology could have a direct use in residential and commercial settings, producing renewable energy without the set-up costs and often ingongruous appearance of solar panelling.
"Our colloidal inorganic nanocrystals share all of the primary advantages of organics - scalable and controlled synthesis, an ability to be processed in solution, and a decreased sensitivity to substitutional doping - while retaining the broadband absorption and superior transport properties of traditional photovoltaic semiconductors," said Ilan Gur, a researcher in Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and graduate student in UC Berkeley's Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
"We obviously still have a long way to go in terms of energy conversion efficiency but our dual nanocrystal solar cells are ultra-thin and solution-processed, which means they retain the cost-reduction potential that has made organic cells so attractive vis-a-vis their conventional semiconductor counterparts," added Gur.