New technology is being developed by a University of Connecticut professor that could double the efficiency of existing solar cell panels. More significantly, the technology could reduce the cost of building solar panels.
According to UConn Today, Professor Challa V. Kumar, who holds appointments in the departments of Chemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, and the Institute of Materials Science, and his team have created a gel that enhances the ability of solar cells to absorb energy from sunlight.
Kumar has developed a light-harvesting antenna. It collects unused blue photons in the light spectrum and, via a process of “artificial photosynthesis,” converts them to lower energy photons that the silicon can then turn into current, Kumar said.
His research team used a mixture of biodegradable materials to collect sunlight, much like plant chlorophyll. The concoction includes cow blood protein (a waste product in the meat industry), fatty acid from coconuts, and different organic dyes. Together these substances form a gel that, when placed in a Gratzel cell, a particular type of solar cell, increases their absorption of unused photons and the power output of the cell, according to the university.
Kumar says the gel is easy to make and relatively inexpensive, but the mixture needs to be stable and tough enough to last multiple years to be incorporated into existing manufacturing techniques. UConn has filed a provisional patent application, and Kumar is working with a Connecticut company to figure out how to apply the gel to silicon solar cells.