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.
