Chemists at the Ural Federal University have successfully synthesized organic dyes for solar panels, reported the Department of Scientific Communications of UrFU.

The use of sensitizing dyes helps to increase the low efficiency of solar cells. With the help of one of the new products – IS-BTh-1 – it was possible to bring it to 4.41%. These, as scientists admit, “are not record figures, but extremely encouraging.”

They are confident that the energy efficiency of solar panels still has room to improve.

“Currently, the efficiency of energy conversion in sensitized solar cells is about 10%, the record is 14-15%, but from a small area,” said the head of the laboratory of advanced organic materials at the Institute of Organic Synthesis, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Steparuk.

Organic dyes for solar cells are more environmentally friendly than traditional metal-based ones and are cheaper to produce – sensitized batteries are half the price of conventional silicon ones.

“Today, sensitized solar cells represent a profitable alternative to the market leader – more expensive and complex technologies of silicon solar cells,” said Associate Professor of the Department of Organic Synthesis Technology at UrFU Gennady Rusinov.

According to him, the development opens up great prospects. Solar panels turn out to be translucent, so they can be used to cover the facades of buildings or glaze windows.