New process proposed for cheaper, greener solar cells
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028044
BBC : Although most commercial solar cells are made of silicon, researchers have been experimenting with other materials. Cadmium telluride has proven to be a highly efficient solar cell material. But it must be doped with another material, and the optimum choice, cadmium chloride, is both expensive and toxic. Now a group of researchers led by Jon Major of the University of Liverpool in the UK have found a promising alternative: magnesium chloride. The dopant is cheaper and safer, and it yields efficiencies almost as high as those of cells doped with cadmium chloride. The process may prove to be irrelevant, however, because tellurium is so scarce. But Major remains optimistic: “The way solar is progressing, it will just be a matter of time before it becomes competitive with fossil fuels and eventually replaces them.”
