IBM researches conventional materials to produce solar cell technology

　　IBM researches conventional materials to produce solar cell technology

　　IBM scientists are working on developing solar cells using conventional materials. Researchers published a paper in the journal Advanced Materials stating that solar cells can be manufactured in a relatively efficient manner using conventional materials. This kind of battery can convert 9.6% of solar energy into electrical energy, and the photoelectric conversion efficiency is 40% higher than current technology. This conversion efficiency greatly exceeds that of silicon cells on the market and is even comparable to that of thin-film solar cells. IBM used conventional materials to make the solar cells, such as copper, zinc, tin, sulfur, or selenium. IBM said the rare materials used in existing solar technology have limited its development.

　　Solar announced that they use cadmium and tellurium to manufacture thin-film batteries. General Electric also plans to start selling cadmium telluride batteries early next year. Small companies like Nanosolar, Miasole and HelioVolt are producing solar cells made from alloys of copper, indium, gallium and selenide.

　　IBM scientists Teodor Todorov, Kathleen Reuter and David Mitz believe that the disadvantage of the above-mentioned batteries is that the raw materials used are either scarce or have an impact on the environment. This means that these batteries need to consider the cost of environmental protection. Thomas Theis, director of physical sciences at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Laboratory, said: "Other batteries with the same efficiency contain materials that are either very expensive, have environmental impacts, or have little room for further improvement in efficiency, which makes them commercially incompetent. Scaling becomes difficult.”

　　Compared with conventional batteries, the advantage of thin film batteries is that they use less material. IBM solar cells can be produced using high-speed manufacturing techniques, such as roll-to-roll manufacturing. Matthew Beard, a researcher at the National Sustainable Energy Laboratory who worked on the IBM project, called the technology a "breakthrough."

　　Scientists predict that if this technology can achieve a breakthrough, it can achieve a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 12%, thus completely replacing existing solar products in terms of economic cost.

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