Fulbright scholar Anastasiia Iefanova has developed an inexpensive, semi-transparent solar material that can be applied to windows to convert light into electricity.
The problem with using windows as a source for solar energy is that solar cells are opaque. To overcome this hurdle, Iefanova used a dve-sensitized solar cell, which can be semi-transparent.
The next hurdle was to figure out how to make the back electrode of the cell transparent as well. Drawing on her experience with solar panels for space destinations, which she studied as a graduate student at the National Aerospace University in the Ukraine, her home country, Iefanova was able to come up with a unique solution: spray-coating nanoparticles of platinum onto the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass. Doing this gave the glass the impression of being transparent, but the thin film of material was still able to transport a charge at the same level of efficiency as that of an opaque platinum thin film.
Anastasiia Iefanova holds the semi-transparent solar material she developed while earning her master's degree in electrical engineering.
Iefanova described the process as relatively simple, and pointed out fabrication costs would be low, especially when the technique is applied to a larger surface, like a window on a commercial building. This is because spray-coating uses less than one-tenth of the material, she explained, which means costs are reduced by more than 90% when compared to conventional sputtered coating.
The research was conducted as part of her master’s study at South Dakota State University. Iefanova presented her findings at the Material Research Society Symposium last year and Photovoltaic Specialist Conference this year.
While her master’s work was completed with this project, her work at SDSU is not done just yet; she plans on returning to the university to pursue doctoral work in the photovoltaics and energy systems program.
Story via: sdstate.edu
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