Tobacco-Based Spray-On Solar Cells?

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a way to create cheap, biodegradable spray-on solar cells from tobacco plants. They’re using a little genetic modification within the tobacco mosaic virus — a virus that has historically plagued tobacco crops — to create tiny structures called chromophores. Chromophores have the unique ability to turn light into high-powered electrons.

The tobacco plant is sprayed with the virus that creates the chromophores, which in turn form into tightly coiled formations. Those formations are essentially nanowires hundreds of nanometers long and spaced about three nanometers apart from each other — in the exact position relative to each other that is ideal for the creation of electrons.

The tobacco plants would be harvested and chopped up by scientists, who would extract the photosynthesis-mimicking chromophores. They would then be deposited into a liquid solution that could be sprayed onto a substrate to create solar cells.

Like other biomimetic, synthetic solar cells, UC Berkeley’s cells are nowhere near as efficient as conventional silicon solar cells. But they are cheap and biodegradable, contain no toxins, and can be sprayed onto a substrate to create thin, flexible solar cells and panels. Moreover, should tobacco solar cells one day make it to commercialization, they could certainly put farmers back to work growing a new energy source, which could also create chemical energy that could be used to power trucks or aircraft. Not that’s turning vice into virtue!

Photo Credit: aloalo*

Posted on February 19th in Solar Research by Dan.