Producing Cadmium Telluride Material for Solar Cells

Researchers developed a method for rapidly growing a large amount of high-purity cadmium telluride (CdTe) material — a more than kilogram-sized crystal in one day. The technique, which uses a high-pressure furnace to produce large amounts of the CdTe feedstock material, is 45% more cost-effective than the industry standard and is scalable, which could make CdTe solar technology less expensive than natural gas. The crystal material produced also has better electrical properties for solar cell production than what is currently available.