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Solar Cells Made From a Spreadable Nanoparticle Paste

Posted by timothy on from the soylent-goo dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at Notre Dame have created a nanoparticle paste, which acts as the main ingredient in solar cells that are very easy to construct. In a short video clip, they can be seen assembling a functional solar cell with little more than a heat gun, tape, and some binder clips. The paste is made from a mix of t-butanol, water, and a mix of cadmium selenide with cadmium sulfide nanoparticles. So far, the experimental devices are not nearly as efficient as standard solar cells, but they were just developed. If the materials were slightly less toxic, it might even be a project that kids could do at home."

20 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. How slightly are we talking about here? by Lashat · · Score: 2

    "If the materials were slightly less toxic, it might even be a project that kids could do at home."

    It better be like Play-doh.

    --
    For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
    1. Re:How slightly are we talking about here? by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Informative

      Considering it's got cadmium selenide, the current version is pretty toxic [pdf]. I assume the blurb is just trying to find a catchy way of saying that the actual preparation process is not difficult.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    2. Re:How slightly are we talking about here? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "If the materials were slightly less toxic, it might even be a project that kids could do at home."

      30+ years ago this probably would have been a kids project. But now we have chemical free chemistry sets.

  2. Huge breakthrough! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We can now make ineffective solar cells from horrendously toxic materials, this is a step up from our previous efforts to produce ineffective solar cells using non-toxic and mildy toxic materials.

  3. Similar to the dye sensitized solar cell kit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I build this kit as a solar cell demo for my school a few weeks ago. The article has a very different chemistry, but the assembly is almost identical.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17SsOKEN5dE

  4. Could be better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Solar paint is fine, but there's a whole lot of energy that could be gathered with solar pavement. Just think of all those blacktop parking lots, if those had a 1% solar energy conversion you could probably make mini-malls power grid neutral.

    1. Re:Could be better by IonOtter · · Score: 2

      Ahhh, yes, the old 60% scare.

      Funny, they also have full, all-inclusive healthcare, generous retirement packages, pensions from their employer and the state, a minimum of 30 days paid vacation and a 38-hour work week. Oh, and because of all those subsidies, they industrial sector is quite safe from the downturn and making lots of money, their banks didn't crash and their economy only took a ding because everyone ELSE crashed and burned.

      Yeah, that 60% is sooooo painful.

      I'm sure all the German tourists in Asia, Africa, South America and the Mediterranean are all screaming in agony as they sip cool drinks by the shore.

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      [End Of Line]
    2. Re:Could be better by emilper · · Score: 2

      They also some 25% unemployment, most of it camouflaged by one of the Hartz-es, complain that the standards of living are going down, sold their some of the industrial sector ... and some of the banks, too ... to the Russians and the Chinese, and their banks did not crash yet only because the Greeks did not declare bankruptcy.

      Oh, and the health care is not all-inclusive since the 80s ... their media blames the decline on the money spent on integrating East Germany, but the decline began some 10 years before that.

      Spiegel was writing about whether Germany will enter recession or not as early as 2005 ...

      find a German expat and ask him or her ... might change your mind about the european paradise. You don't have a "German problem" in the US like you thought you had in the 1850s only because it's a lot harder to emigrate if the only training you have is fit for the 1950s, and wasted 3 years or more pretending to be an "apprentice carpenter" or "bread salesman" or something similar ... There are two Germanies: a high tech corporate one that you see boozing in Thailand and the other, working dodgy jobs when not in a "retraining program", and blaming the dirty foreigners for everything.

      About the 60%: http://www.oecd.org/document/45/0,3746,en_21571361_44315115_47822637_1_1_1_1,00.html ... (this OECD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_for_Economic_Co-operation_and_Development ) and that is only the taxes paid directly, you have to add the other contributions that pay for the "free" health care etc. and who are not considered taxes, VAT, the fuel tax (0.85 USD per _litre_ , that is, roughly speaking 3.5 USD for a gallon only in taxes). Most of the money go on agricultural subsidies, "export compensations" (that is the EU word for dumping), infrastructure subsidies for companies etc. ... and of course keeping the army of long term unemployed relatively healthy, fed, clothed and entertained with work training programs.

      Germany had an average growth rate of under 2% during the last 30 years, compared with the over 3% for US, for example. The larger German corporations grew a lot more, but guess who paid for that ... the 1% you complain in US is a lot smaller in EU.

  5. Fake jewelry by Ironchew · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Ah ha!" a Chinese government spokesperson reportedly said. "The only way to save the planet is to melt our cadmium-laden kids' jewelry into a toothpaste-like substance. Bet you never saw that coming."

  6. slightly less toxic? by wierd_w · · Score: 2

    Slightly? This is cadnium we are talking about. Its a freaking heavy metal! (And not the rock and roll kind!)

    What's next, mercury funtime playsets?

    1. Re:slightly less toxic? by HellKnite · · Score: 2

      What's next, mercury funtime playsets?

      Actually, that's not next, it's already happened. My dad often tells stories about playing with mercury as a kid. Then we learned how that was a bad idea...

  7. Very easy [Re:How slightly are we talking abou...] by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "If the materials were slightly less toxic, it might even be a project that kids could do at home."

    It's easy to make cad sulfide/copper sulfide solar cells at home-- it takes little more work than dipping a penny in a cad sulfide plating solution. Making not-very-efficient solar cells at home is really nothing new. As long as you don't drink the plating solution, it's not terribly dangerous.

    (main reason cadmium sulfide/copper sulfide solar cells never really caught on is lifetime-- they degrade quickly if there's any humidity at all. I don't think I've heard of anybody making them since about 1980.)

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  8. Awesome.... by PortHaven · · Score: 2

    Peanut Butter and Solar Celly Sandwiches anyone?

  9. China Will Win: Kids There Play With Cadmium Now by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is why the west will never catch up with China. They are so forward thinking and innovative they have had their kids playing with Cadmium, Lead, and other heavy metals for years now. How can we possibly compete?

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    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  10. Cadmium? by glorybe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Can this material keep from leeching out into the environment? How about a fire? Would we have cadmium spreading all over the place? I guess if one gets enough cadmium solar cells are no longer of much use at all.

  11. Re:China Will Win: Kids There Play With Cadmium No by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Informative

    If they get to play with mercury, I'd consider moving, because mercury is awesome.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  12. Re:Very easy [Re:How slightly are we talking abou. by derGoldstein · · Score: 2

    But why risk it? Just use copper oxide, it's far safer (except for maybe the heating part). Also, they mention about a 1% efficiency, which is what you'll get with this.

    --
    Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
  13. Re:China Will Win: Kids There Play With Cadmium No by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 2

    "...beakers, Florence flasks, little petri dishes full of mercury - blobs of mercury. I used to play with it all the time ... One of the things I used to like to do was pour the mercury on the floor and hit it with a hammer, so it squirted all over the place. I lived in mercury."

    -- Frank Zappa, recalling his childhood

  14. Re:China Will Win: Kids There Play With Cadmium No by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 4, Funny

    Heck, a few decades ago kids were still playing with the mercury from broken thermometers here. Now the nanny state liberals tell us oooooooo mercury is bad for you. Bah! It never affected me. Now, why is a raven like a writing desk?

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    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  15. Re:China Will Win: Kids There Play With Cadmium No by Firethorn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sure he's as mad as a hatter. ;)

    --
    I don't read AC A human right