14 DAY TRIAL // Chemical engineers are currently looking for new ways of designing and building solar cells, in such a way that they could be spray-painted on roofs, windows and walls. Harnessing the power of the Sun could in the near future be a lot closer at hand than it is today.
Existing conversion technologies are still pretty expensive, and they supply reduced efficiency rates. Spray-on solar cells could provide a lot more electricity, while at the same time being cheaper, and a lot easier to apply.
At this time, photovoltaic cells are big, bulky, and breakable, which makes them very difficult to operate. They also require a lot of attention and maintenance, which further raises associated costs.
If experts manage to develop inexpensive, spray-on paints, then both initial and maintenance costs could drop considerably, making the technology available to more people.
This could help reduce the strain placed on existing power grids, and also the amount of electricity that needs to be generated by burning fossil fuels, including coal and oil. In turn, this reduction would help diminish the amount of carbon dioxide humans put into the atmosphere every year.
Pollutants such as carbon dioxide and methane (collectively called greenhouse gases), are the main factors responsible for the greenhouse effect that produces global warming and climate change.
But, while the principles of converting sunlight into electricity have been known for about a century, transposing them into tangible reality is a little bit more difficult than it may seem.
“Not only does it involve fundamental science in terms of physics and chemistry, and in some cases biology, but there are major engineering challenges as well,” explains University of Texas in Austin (UTA) nanomaterials chemist Brian Korgel.
“There was a time where the field of chemical engineering had a reputation of being really conservative. You'd get your degree in chemical engineering, and you'd work for a chemical plant with a hard hat or in a giant refinery,” he says.
But now, “chemical engineers are now able to take these new chemicals, like nanomaterials, and we're trying to create the technologies that can meet the global challenge of, say, energy sustainability,” he goes on to explains.
“We're taking chemistry, we're inventing new ways to actually make materials that can't be made any other way,” Korgel says.
The expert and his team are currently engaged in an effort to develop affordable and efficient solar cells. Their work is being supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).