The Russians are working on a photocatalism that will let them make solar panels from photocatals they can buy.
The National Center for Photonic Materials and Photovoltaics in Moscow is working on an approach that is being called the “super-cascade,” or super-photonic cascade, which is similar to what the Japanese have been developing for their solar cells.
It involves stacking the photocatacals in layers, which could allow for thinner panels, and then applying an electron beam to break the stacking, and making a new layer of the new material, called an anode.
The problem with super-cascades is that they require very precise control, which can be hard to come by in a country like Russia, where the country has been developing a large number of technologies, but not a lot of them in the scientific and commercial realm.
Russian officials hope to find a way to produce the super-photosystemic cascade in the next two years, with the goal of making it available to commercial solar manufacturers in 2018.
The new material is being developed by a team of Russian scientists led by Anatoly Chizhov, head of the research group at the institute, according to a statement from the Russian state news agency TASS.
They are working in cooperation with engineers from the state-run Novosti Media Factory and the Institute for Photonics and Electronics, which has been producing the new materials.
The technology is a “first step towards a super-capacitor,” which would help solar cells last for years, and could even make solar cells more efficient, Chizhova said in a statement, according