Australian Student Manufactures Solar Cells from Inkjet Printer, Pizza Oven and Nail Polish
In what could turn out to be a life changing option for many underdeveloped nations, an Australian PhD student has discovered a way of producing solar cells by utilizing everyday gadgets such as an inkjet printer, a regular pizza oven and nail polish. The extract of the solar cell production hasn’t been shared with the media yet.
Nicole Kuepper is a 23-year old PhD student and a teacher in the school of photovoltaic and renewable energy engineering at the University of NSW. For her effort is creating iJET, the solar cells produced from everyday items, she was awarded with Museum Eureka Award, drubbed as the Australian Oscar for Science.
Australian Museum director Frank Howard said – “Nicole’s iJET solar cell will potentially bring affordable electricity to the poorest people in the world, but more than this, it will be clean and renewable.”
Solar cells are currently manufactured by the photovoltaic technique which is expensive and cannot be afforded by many poorer countries. If iJET becomes a practical/commercial success it can be made without high-tech environments or components.
About the author:
Abhinav has been blogging about printing and related technologies on CreativeCloud for several years. He is also a project manager for a large technology company.
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