A*Star researchers, in a bid to find an alternative to silicon-based solar cells, are investigating a new material that is more cost-effective and easier to produce that could also lead to more efficient solar cells.Silicon solar cells have enjoyed incremental efficiency increases over the past few years, with many now able to convert up to 25% of sunlight into electricity. However, manufacturing silicon wafers, which need to be around 300 microns thick to absorb all the sunlight that reaches them, requires temperatures of around 1,200 degrees Celsius, a procedure that brings significant costs. Telluride, a cheaper alternative to silicon, is however highly toxic and known to cause cancer.
Such conditions prompted Goutam Dalapati and other colleagues from ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...