US Scientists Make Ultra-Promising Carbon-Nanotube Solar Power Breakthrough

Cool & sexy news from the chemical front! I know I know - I'm supposed to be taking the month off.

But I tripped over this today and just had to share the good news!! This is too cool. :)

Imagine DIY power stations that use solar cells that you run off on your printer. Seriously!

U.S. researchers have discovered a method to paint or print solar cells on paper of thin plastic sheets.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) researchers have found a way to make solar cells out of carbon nanotubes. They say this hold promise for inexpensive organic polymer-based solar cells technology.

They hope someday that people can just print off a solar cell and stick it wherever you need to generate power. Of course it's a bit more complicated than that but the scientists do not believe the process will be too complex.

The paper, entitled “Fullerene single wall carbon nanotube complex for polymer bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells,” made the cover of the June 21, 2007 issue Journal of Materials Chemistry (a publcation of the Royal Society of Chemistry).


Lead researcher and author Dr. Somenath Mitra, is professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences.

“The process is simple" says Mitra. "Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations. Developing organic solar cells from polymers, however, is a cheap and potentially simpler alternative."

Mitra and fellow researchers "foresee a great deal of interest in our work because solar cells can be inexpensively printed or simply painted on exterior building walls and/or roof tops. Imagine some day driving in your hybrid car with a solar panel painted on the roof, which is producing electricity to drive the engine. The opportunities are endless. ”