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Better Solar Cells and Batteries from Particle-free Silver Ink?

silver ink
Photo via S. Brett Walker at UofI

What is particle-free silver ink, and why should you care about it?

A researcher at the University of Illinois, Jennifer Lewis, and a graduate student, S. Brett Walker have developed a new particle-free silver ink. This is the kind of ink that transmits electrical current, so it has many applications in renewable energy. The problem with the older inks were that they had particles in them, which apparently made this less stable, harder to print, and generally more difficult to use. This new ink solves many, if not most, of these problems. Which means, as their paper describes, that an ink now exists that can transmit electrical current and can be used by an inkjet printer or “direct ink writing.”

Sounds pretty cool to us, and any thing that makes solar energy and batteries more efficient and better-performing makes us take notice.

Read the full press release on the CEIL website.

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