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Solar Cells Made From a Spreadable Nanoparticle Paste
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."
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.
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
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$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Solar paint is fine, but there's a whole lot of energy that could be gathered with solar pavement. Just think of all those blacktop parking lots, if those had a 1% solar energy conversion you could probably make mini-malls power grid neutral.
"Ah ha!" a Chinese government spokesperson reportedly said. "The only way to save the planet is to melt our cadmium-laden kids' jewelry into a toothpaste-like substance. Bet you never saw that coming."
"If the materials were slightly less toxic, it might even be a project that kids could do at home."
30+ years ago this probably would have been a kids project. But now we have chemical free chemistry sets.
"If the materials were slightly less toxic, it might even be a project that kids could do at home."
It's easy to make cad sulfide/copper sulfide solar cells at home-- it takes little more work than dipping a penny in a cad sulfide plating solution. Making not-very-efficient solar cells at home is really nothing new. As long as you don't drink the plating solution, it's not terribly dangerous.
(main reason cadmium sulfide/copper sulfide solar cells never really caught on is lifetime-- they degrade quickly if there's any humidity at all. I don't think I've heard of anybody making them since about 1980.)
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
This is why the west will never catch up with China. They are so forward thinking and innovative they have had their kids playing with Cadmium, Lead, and other heavy metals for years now. How can we possibly compete?
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Can this material keep from leeching out into the environment? How about a fire? Would we have cadmium spreading all over the place? I guess if one gets enough cadmium solar cells are no longer of much use at all.
If they get to play with mercury, I'd consider moving, because mercury is awesome.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
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?
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I'm sure he's as mad as a hatter. ;)
I don't read AC A human right