New iJET Solar Cell is as Easy to Make as Pizza
An Australian scientist has developed a new method of manufacturing solar cells using nothing more than some nail polish remover, a pizza oven and a standard inkjet printer.
The iJET technique is so easy and cheap to carry out that it could revolutionize access to solar technology in the developing world.
In a recent radio interview (audio), Nicole Kuepper, a 23 year-old PhD student at the University of New South Wales, explained the process.
- » See also: Altus Air Force Base is Flying High on New Green Award
- » Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell and sprays it with a substance similar to nail polish. Then, she inkjet prints something like nail polish remover onto the wafer in a set pattern in the same way that you’d print a normal photo. This enables the creation of high-resolution patterns on the cell at a very low cost. The cell is then metallized with an aluminum spray and baked at a very low temperature of around 550 fahrenheit in “something like a pizza oven.”
Kuepper went on to explain how solar cells are currently manufactured using expensive “high-tech, high-cleanliness equipment,” too costly for many countries in the developing world, adding, “we’re trying to do away with all of that so that so we can ensure that these solar cells can actually be manufactured in a developing country’s environment that you might find in say Ghana or Laos for example.”
Image Credit - Mulad via flickr.com on a Creative Commons license
That’s sweet. When are we going to see this?
A new method of manufacturing solar cells that only requires nail polish remover, a toaster, an inkjet printer, and… a solar cell.
Wait.
“Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell …”
so she makes a solar cell with a solar cell !
;D
She *starts* with a solar cell? Wait, isn’t the implication of this article that it is easy to make solar cells? Yet the technique requires starting with a solar cell. I am confused.
Not excited unless they’re as tasty as pizza. And not just any pizza. BROOKLYN pizza.
How can this be a new way to make solar cells if she “takes a standard silicon solar cell and sprays it with a substance similar to nail polish….” etc.?
That doesn’t sound like any pizza making process I’m aware of. What’s the catch - there is always a catch with these solar breakthroughs. Highly toxic chemicals, rare metals, impossible to scale or all of the above?
This is awesome, but these stories tend to have a bit of a downer quote at the end from a scientist about the fatal flaw in the concept
A third world country with lots of solar cells will still be a third world country at the end of the day. Those of you who think this is going to somehow change countries like Zimbabwe need to get your heads out of your a$$es.
Screw the developing countries… I want to know how to do it so I can do this at home. Do you guys have any more information about there process?