South Korea is developing a cheaper, greener solar panel

Solar energy is an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional, non-renewable energy. However, current solar panels require toxic materials as buffer layers, which is not environmentally friendly. To this end, according to foreign media reports, a team of scientists in South Korea has developed a new environmentally friendly alternative - ZTO buffer layer, which can overcome this limitation and is also the icing on the cake to make solar panels more environmentally friendly.

There is no doubt that the climate change crisis is imminent. Given the urgency, it is necessary to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. In recent years, solar energy has become one of the most promising alternative energy sources. Now, scientists from Incheon National University in South Korea have announced new contributions in this field.

Solar panels consist of photovoltaic cells, materials that generate excited electrons, or electric current, when exposed to light. Modern thin-film solar cells consist of micrometer- or submicrometer-thick layers of photovoltaic materials, which can be integrated into flexible, lightweight panels and used as a variety of substrates. However, this process has some limitations. "Most thin-film solar cells contain toxic and expensive elements, which may hinder the popularization of solar cells," explains Professor Jun Ho Kim, who led the research. Currently, Professor Kim and his team are working to produce solar cells using environmentally friendly materials that are abundant in nature, easy to extract, and inexpensive to manufacture.

Scientists are looking to create environmentally friendly batteries using natural minerals - copper, tin and zinc sulphide (which acts as a photon absorber). Most copper, tin and zinc sulphide batteries use cadmium sulphide as a buffer layer to optimize their performance. Despite high efficiency, the pollution associated with making such buffer layers and the toxic cadmium are not ideal characteristics for environmentally friendly solar cells. To address this problem, researchers studied a promising alternative - ZTO buffer layer. To further improve the efficiency of solar cells, the team adjusted the energy levels of electrons between the absorber layer (copper, tin and zinc sulphide) and the buffer layer (ZTO) to allow electrons to circulate better between the two layers, thereby increasing the voltage and overall performance of the battery, with a power conversion efficiency of 11.22%. For perspective, the maximum efficiency of copper, tin and zinc sulphide batteries using CdS buffer layers can reach 12.6%. This technology is also the first time that such high-performance batteries have been made using only environmentally friendly, abundant and inexpensive materials.

The importance of this research grows as renewable energy is expected to increase its market share in the coming decades. As the demand for solar panels increases, it is also extremely important to obtain the components in the most environmentally friendly and cheapest way. The technology developed by Dr. Kim and his team brings us one step closer to this goal. The research team hopes that its invention can bring about a renewable future. Professor Kim said that the environmentally friendly thin-film solar cells can be installed on the roofs and walls of buildings and houses to provide electricity. In addition, they can also be installed on ground vehicles (such as cars, buses and trucks) and marine transportation vehicles (such as ships and remote ships) to provide part of the electricity.