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.
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
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October 5th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
That’s sweet. When are we going to see this?
October 5th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
A new method of manufacturing solar cells that only requires nail polish remover, a toaster, an inkjet printer, and… a solar cell.
Wait.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
“Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell …”
so she makes a solar cell with a solar cell !
;D
October 5th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
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.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Not excited unless they’re as tasty as pizza. And not just any pizza. BROOKLYN pizza.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
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.?
October 5th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
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?
October 5th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
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
October 5th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
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.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
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?
October 5th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Well, there are a ton of ways to make cheap solar cells. What this article does not discuss is the efficiency. These “expensive” process turn out cells with a MAXIMUM of %12-15 efficiency. That is pretty low considering how much money as gone into their development. So, if you’re talking about printing these and you get %1 or %2 efficiency is it really worth it?
For argument’s sake:
A 1′x1′ array @ %15 efficiency is equal to a 12′x 12′ array @ %1 efficieny.
Try putting a 12×12 array on top of a mud hut.
/just sayin
October 5th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Sounds like a technology I’d like to see come to market. I was confused a little by the first step you mention in your article, since the article is about manufacturing solar cells.
“Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell”
Where do you get the first silicon solar cell to start from? Is that something that can be manufactured easily in developing countries?
October 6th, 2008 at 5:53 am
“Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell and …”
What is standard silicon solar cell? If it is standard silicon solar cell making voltage then what are next stupid tasks for?
October 6th, 2008 at 6:49 am
You say she “takes a standard silicon solar cell” well, duh. It seems the hard work is already complete once you get that far, no? So how’s the effciency? How long do they last? What’s the yield?
October 6th, 2008 at 7:25 am
We need to get these kind of projects off the ground before the government finds reasons that we won’t be allowed to do it.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:55 am
@ Nate
Hi – there’s some more information on the process (and its creator) in this video clip:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=W8eNeReo-hw
October 6th, 2008 at 7:58 am
“Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell and sprays it with a substance similar to nail polish”
Maybe I don’t understand it but that’s like saying how to become a millionaire:
“First, you get a million dollars”
October 6th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I would be very interested to know the output of the cell. Is it higher then a traditional cell?
October 6th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I don’t get it. She makes solar cells cheaper than the standard solar cells by a process that uses as its first ingredient … standard solar cells?
If you already have the “standard silicon solar cell”, why don’t you stop at that step? The article fails to explain this basic point.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:39 am
“…Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell and sprays it ….”
So the text at the begining should be: “An Australian scientist has developed a new method of manufacturing solar cells using nothing more than A STANDARD SILICON SOLAR CELL, some nail polish remover, a pizza oven and a standard inkjet printer.”
October 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Well… I hope she do not get “silenced” for “upseting” some multi-trilions dollars industry !
Still, where can I get the plans do to it my self ?
ps: Nicole Kuepper, can you please put some thing like “Send the plans of this invention to all living engineer in USA if I died” in your testament. tnx…
October 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Umm. She’s making solar cells by starting with solar cells?
October 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Wait a minute, she starts with a standard silicon solar cell? I think I see how this trick is done.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Be aware that this person says “Something Like” quite often which means that there is no scientific evidence that these are what the real materials are. A nuclear proton accelerator might look like a giant dough mixer but that doesn’t mean you can make one out of a dough mixer… Not to discredit this person’s research in producing a cheaper solar cell but this doesn’t sound like an scientific article
October 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Yeah, why not give us more details!! I want DETAILS man!!
October 6th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Yeah, it took me almost a minute to figure this one out. I had to read all the way to the second paragraph. “Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell …”.
Here’s how to make a million dollars: Firstly, get a million dollars. Then put it in the bank.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Hey Nate, I live in a developing country (Vietnam). Screw you. Why don’t you drive your SUV into your over-mortgaged McMansion and shove your 60-inch plasma television where the solar energy wont shine?
People here live on a buck a day and burn crap to cook their food. They could use the leg up. Hope fast food gives you cancer.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I THINK the article means a standard silicon WAFER, not a completed solar cell. Can we get a confirmation or a correction from the editors?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:12 am
That’s a good point, Obedient. The noun “solar cell” in the first sentence is obviously a mistake. It should be replaced with “silicon wafer,” like the second sentence. I’m all for giving poor regions economic opportunity. Pure silicon wafers aren’t exactly pizza crusts, though.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Coming to theaters this summer. Blood Solar. The gripping struggle of a third worlds country as regime after regime rise up and coup regions with this revolutionary solar technology. Millions die.. The inventor is martyred.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am
so, essentially, its more like making a pizza from a frozen, pre-packaged pizza..
October 17th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
IF you actually listen to the audio broadcast although she says it requires a solar cell, her next sentence actually describes just a raw silicon wafer. So its more like making a pizza from frozen dough, rather than an already made pizza. For those who don’t know, a silicon wafer by itself will not generate electricity, I’m guessing the idea is that you could ship large volumes of silicon wafers (including ones scrapped from the semiconductor industry) to the third world, and this technology would allow them to convert it to solar cells for power generation. Interesting idea, although I’d like to see the efficiency of the devices.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Looking forward to seeing this released. Our parents rely on solar power and need to update their panels soon, and we are looking to set up a container holiday home on our bush block soon – solar powered also.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I heard of this on the radio and wanted more info so I looked it up.
I can not see how any “third world” counrties would have any sloar cells laying around along with the nail polish and such.
In fact, I do not have any sloar cells laying around here in this “first world” nation I live in – the United States of America!
Do I find one at the local transfer station?
October 28th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
OK you happy campers.
go here “Forming openings to semiconductor layers of silicon solar cells by inkjet printing” :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V51-4T0FHPP-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=f1e435afdaa456bd4ee6be8a925b43c8
and here “(WO/2007/059578) HIGH EFFICIENCY SOLAR CELL FABRICATION”:
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2007059578&IA=AU2006001773&DISPLAY=DESC
try google yourself and you will learn more.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Wow, yea. High Efficiency Solar Cell Fabrication. Try doing that process on top your mud hut. Just add a modern semiconductor wafer fab for about 1 billion and voila, instant efficient solar cells for developing countries. LOL.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
After listening to the audio I would give her the benefit of the doubt that she did not mean you have to start with a functional solar cell but rather with a slice of the silicon wafer that is used as raw material. But what she describes is simply the addition of aluminum metal in some unknown pattern on a silicon surface. I don’t know of any way for that to generate electricity. Where is the other electrode? Where is the pn junction that is part of all solar cells? And where are these 3rd world people supposed get raw silicon wafers? Heck, I can’t imagine where I’d get one myself. You have to buy them in bulk to buy them here in the US.
John
December 31st, 2008 at 3:48 am
The trouble with articles like these is that they seemed to be written by people who don’t even know what kind of questions to ask. Like how efficient, why it starts with a solar cell, what kind of comparable costs.
I wish writers had a little more background in hard sciences.
July 9th, 2009 at 5:57 am
Heck we could use some of them here in US, not just in developing countries. D
July 13th, 2009 at 5:56 am
where do i get the solar cell stater with to make a solar cell and how much is the pizza oven