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G24i & BASF partner on novel ionic liquids for photovoltaic cells |
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Oct 12, 2007 at 03:07 PM |
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 G24 Innovations Limited (G24i) and BASF are to start development of ionic liquids to further boost the conversion efficiencies and long-term stability of G24i’s proprietary dye-sensitized thin film solar cell technology used with flexible substrates.
“G24i’s product represents a technological breakthrough that will make solar energy a viable renewable energy option for the first time for a range of new industries and geographies,” stated Clemens Betzel, President of G24i. “Whilst BASF has been a supplier of ionic liquids to G24i for some time, this new agreement will allow us to work more closely on the selection of suitable liquids and formulations that we will test at our specialist facility. We will share the results of these tests and work with BASF to continuously enhance the quality of our product.”
G24i’s dye-sensitized thin film technology is based on solar cells originally developed by Dr. Michael Graetzel of the Swiss Institute of Technology (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)).
BASF has been developing ionic liquids for 6 years, and are attractive for their low cost attributes as they can be easily separated from the desired products, like oil from water, and can also be reused. 1-Methylimidazole, which replaces other bases used as additives, additionally acts as a catalyst, thus speeding up the reaction process, BASF claims.
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