Low Cost Solar Cells Made From Fruit

Currently, commercial solar cells are made from silicon. These cells are around 21% efficient and are pretty much the solar standard. But a new material has come on the scene for creating these cells; Fruit. More precisely, fruit juices. Using these fruit juices as a conductive dye, panels are less efficient, but significantly cheaper as well.

The major hinderance to the solar energy market at this time is the cost. An estimated 70% of the cost of the average solar installation is the cost of the solar modules because of silicon. The law of supply and demand have silicon prices going up because not only is silicon used for solar panels, it also is a staple of the semiconductor field.

Students from Rowan University in Glassboro N.J. have created a process that takes the dark juices of the fruit and combines them to be used in dye-sensitized solar panels. The Rowan students are refining a process that extract dye from a range of fruit, creating a ’smoothie’ of sorts. The heavy particles are seperated using a filter and a centrifuge, which is then freeze dried. What’s left is a combination of sugar and a dye. These are seperate which leaves a brightly colored dye in an acidic solution. This process was developed completely by the New Jersey students.

The dye is then places on a conductive glass coated with a porus film of titanium dioxide, a common material, which bonds to the glass, and then add iodine and potassium iodide electrolyte to aid in dye regenration.

When light hits the process fruit dye on the glass, it excites the electronis, which mobilizes them. The electrons travel to a conductive glass electrode, which in turn produces electricity.

The cells are lower in output from a traditional solar cell, but production from them is quite a bit cheaper, and these modules can basically be created from store bought items.

Further study is focused on different pigments from other plants, such as green plants and photosynthetic bacteria.