Many types of solar cells contain thin strips made of titanium oxide. Making these chips requires high temperatures, advanced technology, and great cost.
But researchers from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have invented a completely organic technique for making these slices at relatively low temperatures, using enzymes extracted from tropical fruits.
The study team used an enzyme called "two doors", which is extracted from the fruits of the tropical papai fruit, in order to make thin slices at temperatures not exceeding the temperature of the traditional household ovens, where the slices of the fruit are dried and the evaporation of the fluids inside them, so that the result is a highly porous slices of Tetania, the same substance that is used in the manufacture of solar cells.
"The current manufacturing methods require specialized devices, vacuum operations and temperatures up to 600 degrees Celsius, which makes the manufacturing process very expensive," the technology expert Tech Explorer website quoted Duncan Macmillan from Delft University as saying.
He added that the new method based on organic enzymes leads to the manufacture of thin films in minutes, and in traditional household ovens.
He added that the new manufacturing technology, which is easy to use on a large scale, opens the door wide to making low cost chips in a sustainable way, and it also allows the manufacture of solar energy chips that can be integrated into the windows of homes and offices.
Macmillan said that the study team is currently working on increasing the efficiency and stability of solar cells depending on different types of dyes and new slices made of titanium oxides.
