Antifreeze solvent for low-cost solar cells

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 said to be easily scaled up for mass production.

The research, published Material Letters also concluded this approach will work with CZTS, or copper zinc tin sulphide, a compound of interest for solar cells due to its excellent optical properties and the fact these materials are cheap and environmentally benign.

‘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,’ said 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.’