Science Daily, Cheap and environmentally friendly: Tofu ingredient could revolutionize solar panel manufacture

Research coming out of the University of Liverpool has the potential to drastically lower the cost of manufacturing solar panels and it’s thanks to an unlikely ingredient – magnesium chloride. Dr. Jon Major, a University of  Liverpool physicist with the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, has shown that magnesium chloride, a chemical also used in making tofu and bath salts, can not only reduce the cost but it can also increase the panels’ efficiency.

• Solar panels are currently manufactured using cadmium chloride, a chemical that is both expensive and toxic, requiring special safety measures during both the manufacture and disposal of the panels.
• Magnesium chloride is extracted from seawater and costs $0.001 per gram compared to the $0.3 per gram for cadmium chloride.
• Magnesium chloride is currently used in tofu, bath salts and de-icers for roads.
• Dr. Major discovered that applying magnesium chloride to a solar panel produces the same efficiency boost that comes when a film of cadmium chloride is applied.

Article Link: Science Daily