The research team used chalcopyrite, materials consisting of copper, indium, gallium and selenium, also known as CIGS. This material has a greater solar efficiency than silicon, a material that has been used to make solar panels.
Chalcopyrite then printed on the surface of cells, with similar techniques used in inkjet printers. This technique is expected to produce solar cells with efficiencies of 5 percent, and in the future will be increased again to reach 12 percent efficiency in order to be able to be commercialized.
"We make CIGS solar cells with inkjet printers are inexpensive method under normal conditions," said Wang Wei, one of the researchers. He also added that there was virtually no wasted material from this process - unlike other methods are more expensive due to pass through stages of evaporation