Somenath Mitra, PhD of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has developed an inexpensive solar material that can be sprayed on surfaces or printed on plastic with an ink jet printer. “The process is simple,” said Mitra, “Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.” Well...if he says so! Though I don't want to think about how much an ink cartridge of fullerene is going to cost us.

Mitra’s invention, a “Fullerene single wall carbon nanotube complex for polymer bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells,” is featured as the June 21, 2007 cover story of the Journal of Materials Chemistry published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

“Developing organic solar cells from polymers, however, is a cheap and potentially simpler alternative” to silicon cells, said Mitra.

We foresee a great deal of interest in our work because solar cells can be inexpensively printed or simply painted on exterior building walls and/or roof tops. Imagine some day driving in your hybrid car with a solar panel painted on the roof, which is producing electricity to drive the engine. The opportunities are endless.

Mitra and his research team took the carbon nanotubes and combined them with tiny carbon Buckyballs (known as fullerenes) to form snake-like structures. Buckyballs trap electrons, although they can’t make electrons flow. Add sunlight to excite the polymers, and the buckyballs will grab the electrons. Nanotubes, behaving like copper wires, will then be able to make the electrons or current flow.

“Using this unique combination in an organic solar cell recipe can enhance the efficiency of future painted-on solar cells,” said Mitra. “Someday, I hope to see this process become an inexpensive energy alternative for households around the world.” 

From a New Jersey Institute of Technology press release.

Via: Science Daily

Comments (5)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

NanoSolar?
written by Gordon Niessen , July 30, 2007

This sounds a lot like NanoSolar. Not sure if they are related or competting technologies.

nans for life
written by your nan , September 26, 2007

nan nan nan nan nan nan

Best Invention Ever
written by nanokiwi , December 13, 2007

pollution -> power

Mitra = just another lab rat that does n
written by OU812 , March 03, 2008

This is not Mitra’ invention! Mitra has spent countless hours and gobs of other peoples’ money realizing a pre-existing patented novel invention belonging to another inventor.

mithra..who?
written by p , March 26, 2008

are u referring to the prof.at stanford unv?

Write comment

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

Add Comment