Spray-on solar cells

Solar cells could soon be produced more cheaply using nanoparticle ‘inks’ that allow them to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops to absorb electricity-producing sunlight.

Brian Korgel, a University of Texas at Austin chemical engineer, is hoping to cut costs to one-tenth of their current price by replacing the standard manufacturing process for solar cells, gas-phase deposition in a vacuum chamber, which requires high temperatures and is relatively expensive.

‘That’s essentially what’s needed to make solar-cell technology and photovoltaics widely adopted,’ Korgel said. ‘The sun provides a nearly unlimited energy resource, but existing solar energy harvesting technologies are prohibitively expensive and cannot compete with fossil fuels.’

Korgel and his team have been working for two years on this low-cost, nanomaterials solution to photovoltaics manufacturing. Korgel is collaborating with professors Al Bard and Paul Barbara, both of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Prof Ananth Dodabalapur of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.