Solar Cells to Replace Fossil Fuels: A Possibility with Ultra-Fast-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy
In a time when gasoline
prices soar, brownouts and blackouts occur around the country and wars over oil persist, it seems solar power should be a more prominent
energy source than it actually is. Even though solar cells produce electricity without pollution, the majority of the world’s population still depends primarily on the burning of fossil fuels for energy, which pollutes the air and water and adds to the greenhouse gases which in turn increase global warming. One reason solar power has not yet thrived as our main energy source is the initial cost. Although the sun’s energy is free for the taking, the semiconductor materials needed to convert the sunlight into electricity are expensive to manufacture. The solar cell’s specific chemistry and structure are crucial to the material’s performance and thus slight changes in the manufacturing process – or
deposition - will cause a solar cell to be worthless and thrown away. By utilizing a polycapillary x-ray optic in an ultra-fast x-ray fluorescence spectrometer in situ with the solar cell deposition, the conditions by which the cells are manufactured can be monitored in real-time. This means the solar cells can be made correctly the first time, making the deposition process less time consuming, more cost-effective and waste-free. With this technology, we hope to make solar power feasible, affordable and accessible to everyone.