Solaronix has always been a key driver of innovation through the supply of specialty chemicals, the development of Dye Solar Cell manufacturing processes, and the fabrication of exclusive solar simulation equipment. More than ever, our customer’s satisfaction is our utmost priority. See what we have to offer in our new 2012 catalog. Here are some hot picks we would like to share with you.

Our equipment department now has a larger capacity to meet the demand for our unique solar simulators (p. 53). Solaronix’ testing equipment is enriched with more standard units (p. 56) and the expertise of our team for building custom machines is even greater (p. 59).

Following our desire to support research and development in the field of Dye Solar Cells, we have introduced a number of new products in the 2012 catalog. Most notably, the Test Cell Kit is a new Dye Solar Cell program aimed at facilitating making solar cells in the laboratory (p. 42). The test cell kit offers all the parts, ready-to-use, to make high-end Dye Solar Cells, and knocks down the barriers to starting a research program. This kit will attract new customers desiring an easy route to explore their compounds, as well as existing customers wishing to increase their productivity.

Last but not least, a new chapter of the catalog has been created for Labware items (p. 61). This new chapter offers items that go perfectly together with our chemicals.

Find all our products and services on our webshop at

shop.solaronix.com

Staying in touch is not always easy, but it's crucial for us to maintain the close relationships between Solaronix and the Scientific Community. We maintain these connections with our participation in several European Projects, and at times, by sponsoring Scientific Conferences.

The Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) 2012 conference is one such events. The fourth edition of HOPV will be held in the beautiful and historical city of Uppsala, Sweden from May 6th to 9th, 2012. World renowned speakers and over 300 scientists will discuss the latest developments in hybrid and organic photovoltaics, including Dye Solar Cells.

In 2012, Solaronix is sponsoring the HOPV conference again, and we will be happy to welcome you during the event at our booth. Stop by to discover our latest offers and pick up a copy of our new 2012 catalog. Our founders will be on hand to discuss your needs or listen to your feedback.

See you soon in Uppsala!

The Solaronix team.

More information: www.nanoge.org/HOPV12/

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About Meltonix Products

Meltonix products are a range of hot-melt sealing films available in different thicknesses with an optional protection foil. Sealing Dye Solar Cell electrodes together with gaskets cut from these films will ensure a perfect confinement of the electrolyte. The films are made from a remarkable polymer material that exhibit excellent chemical compatibility with the other components of Dye Solar Cells.

Learn More

Custom Gaskets from Meltonix Films

Our LASER Cutting Service is a convenient way to obtain pre-cut sealing gaskets in a repetitive way. Our equipment can be programmed to cut out patterns within a 35 x 35 cm area. From prototyping to production our LASER Cutting Service can accommodate all of your needs.

Learn More

Find the complete Meltonix product line on our online shop: shop.solaronix.com

The difficulty of the filling procedure has been a frequent issue reported to us by our customers. This step is not always as easy at it seems, especially on small laboratory cells used for research.

Solaronix has come up with an easy solution for the delicate assembly step of electrolyte filling.

The Vac'n'Fill Syringe is an easy to use device for making a vacuum in a solar cell cavity and back filling the cavity with a liquid electrolyte. A simple fix for a very common issue at an affordable cost.

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1. Load and purge

Push the syringe to the maximum, dip the tip in your electrolyte, and gently release the spring in order to take up about 0.5 mL of solution.

Place the syringe tip upright and press the cylinder until no air or bubbles remain in the electrolyte solution (use a tissue to absorb excess of liquid). Hold this position for the next step so that air doesn't get back into the syringe.

2. Vacuum, wait

Keeping the cylinder compressed, apply the red rubber tip to the electrode hole.

Slowly release the spring. The resulting suction creates a vacuum in the solar cell's cavity, which may be visible by the evolution of bubbles through the reservoir of electrolyte.

Hold this position for a few seconds, allowing the air to leave the inside of the cell.

3. Fill, release

Once the air is removed from the cell, slowly press the syringe down. The pressure on the electrolyte and the vacuum in the cell's cavity pushes and pulls the liquid inside the solar cell.

Press the spring down until the entire cavity is filled with electrolyte. This technique leaves almost no bubbles between the two electrodes. Repeat the vacuum/fill cycle if necessary.

Continue to depress the syringe while removing the suction tip from the electrode hole. Don't release the syringe's spring before the tip is off the glass to prevent drawing the electrolyte out.

Voila! Your solar cell is filled with electrolyte, just seal the hole and it's ready to go.

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Other tools and chemicals on our online shop:

shop.solaronix.com

Our team is constantly asked for advice, including labware recommendations. Therefore, we decided to bring even more convenience to our customers with our new selection of labware items. All of these new items can be purchased just as easily as our genuine products from the Solaronix online shop.

The tools presented here are especially well adapted for use with our products. They work well for us, and we believe you will appreciate them too. We also plan to add more items in the future upon customers' requests. We are always happy to learn about our customers' needs and see how we can fill their requirements, just let us know your desires!

Staining Boxes

These staining boxes are the perfect asset for staining large electrodes, or several smaller electrodes side by side using the same dye solution.

The staining solution can be removed easily and saved for later use thanks to a plug located in a corner of the box.

Learn More

Non-Metallic Spatulas

These plastic spatulas are made of polypropylene which will prevent contamination of your chemicals with metals.

They can be safely used to stir titania pastes and other screen-printable inks. The flat tip is very useful for loading and unloading printing screens.

Learn More

Heat Resistant Tweezers

Manipulating hot pieces of glass with traditional metallic tweezers can cause breaking by thermal shock. The low thermal conductivity of this heat-resistant tweezers makes it safe for the manipulation of warm glass parts. Additionaly they are compatible with most solvents.

Learn More

Disposable Spatulas

Although used in relatively small quantities, the dye is a precious compound that must not be contaminated. These disposable polypropylene spatulas are perfect for such situations. The chemical inertness of these spatulas provides compatibility with many solvents, and they won't contaminate your preparations.

Learn More

Soft Plastic Pipettes

These disposable pipettes make handling electrolytes or staining solutions easy. The soft plastic material makes them very well suited for working with glass electrodes or other hard substrates.

Learn More

Polypropylene Tweezers

The affordable non-metallic tweezers for the every day manipulations of electrodes.

Learn More

Discover our new selection of labware on our online shop: shop.solaronix.com

Solaronix is very proud to announce the opening of our brand-new online shop at shop.solaronix.com.

Our customers can now enjoy placing orders, requesting quotations, and managing their inquiries, all from the webshop.

Long awaited, but worth the wait, our new webshop has many features to serve your needs. Let us briefly introduce you to some of them…

All participants will benefit from the latest udpates of researchers involved around the world in moving forward the science of the new generation of photovoltaics. That will be also the opportunity to meet, or meet again Solaronix, and exchange around the trends in the Dye Solar Cell field.

We will be hosting a booth on the conference, where we will be showing our solar cells and modules. HOPV2011 is a place where you will be able to learn about our products and our specialties.

We hope to see you there!

The Solaronix team.

More information: www.hopv.org/HOPV11/

We are very pleased to announce significant catalog price reductions on a number of our majors products. Solaronix intends to promote and sustain the development of the Dye Solar Cell technology, and we hope that by making materials available at lower price, we will further stimulate the community.

Thanks to the fidelity of our customers, we have made significant investments towards upscaling production over the past several years. The improvements were focussed on the most demanded products used in Dye Solar Cell fabrication. Now, our efforts are turned to lowering prices, thanks to bigger and more rationalized production techniques.

Our customers will benefit from lower prices, without compromising quality, on a range of products comprising titania pastes, dyes, electrolytes, platinum precursors, and glass substrates. Below is a summary of the changes in our latest catalog.

Titania pastes

Solaronix is known for providing a very comprehensive portfolio of titania paste formulations. It's not surprising that we targeted reducing costs of the major products of this line. Very significant cost reductions were made possible, not only by a larger production capacity, but also by optimizing the product line around two particle sizes instead of four. The three variants of the Ti-Nanoxide T series and the Ti-Nanoxide D series have been merged into the optimized nanoparticle size of 15-20 nm. The product line gains clarity, while offering an increased performance with the best particle size available for the Dye Solar Cell applications.

The screen-printing pastes Ti-Nanoxide T/SP, Ti-Nanoxide D/SP, and Ti-Nanoxide R/SP are becoming 20% more affordable on average. Ti-Nanoxide HT/SP also receives a 7% cost reduction. The versatile formulations Ti-Nanoxide D and Ti-Nanoxide T benefit from a 15% decrease in price, and Ti-Nanoxide HT with a 10% price decrease.

Dyes

The most popular Ruthenizer products, our flagship sensitizing dyes, have naturally received a lot of effort in the upscaling and cost reduction process. Ruthenizer 535 (N3) and Ruthenizer 535-bisTBA (N719) dyes are now 20 to 25% more affordable in average, and even more attractive on very large quantities. Ruthenizer 520-DN receives an important cost reduction of 30% on average, while Ruthenizer 620-1H3TBA (N749) is reduced by 15%.

Electrolytes

The high performance Iodolyte AN-50 electrolyte benefits from a 20% cost reduction on average. The rest of the electrolyte product line has been simplified in the process, Iodolyte MPN series and Iodolyte R series are being replaced with the new Iodolyte Z series. These new electrolytes are also aimed at long-term stability and performance like the products they are replacing, but with improved and optimized formulations. Iodolyte Z-50, Iodolyte Z-100 and Iodolyte Z-150 come in different iodide concentrations and with prices 25% lower in average than the former products.

Platinum Precursors

The Platisol product family hasn't been left behind. The liquid paint of platinum precursor, Platisol T, is 20% more affordable. The Platisol T/SP screen-printable formulation benefits of a 10% cost reduction.

And More

We've also made on effort on reducing the retail prices of the TCO substrates, between 10 and 20% depending on the glass size. Customers can additionally save up to 15% more by buying complete boxes of glass tiles instead of individual parts.

The prices of ionic liquids in small quantities were also decreased to encourage the experimentation with these materials.

You don't need to wait to benefit from the new prices, they are in effect today, 31 January 2011. Please check out the updates on our website and our new catalog. Should you like more information, feel free to contact us, our team of experts is always available to help you out.

The Solaronix Team.

Solaronix Catalog
(PDF, 4.9 MB)

Did you ever wonder if you could make Dye Solar Cells? Yes, you can!

Our team of experts, used to reply the technicals enquiries at Solaronix, took time to write a comprehensive document sharing their knowledge of the technology and the materials. We hope this assembly guide will be a useful introduction for the new members of the Dye Solar Community, helping them to make solar cells easier and faster.

Dye Solar Cells for Real is the result of a long preparation. Readers will not only find a detailed text, but also numerous pictures that illustrate every steps. We made it easy to read, with as few scientific jargon as possible. Making Dye Solar Cells requires no magic, just the right tools, materials, and techniques that we are happy to share with you in this document.

Dye Solar Cells for Real is available for free download on Solaronix' website.

Don't wait anymore and get your copy!

The Solaronix Team.

dye_solar_cells_for_real.pdf
(PDF, 8.5 MB)

This year again, Solaronix will be present with an exhibition booth, where our talented staff will welcome visitors and exchange around our common passion. Academic and industrial Dye Solar Cell aficionados from every horizons will have a chance to see our latest solar cells and modules, as well to learn about our newest products.

We take the opportunity to invite you to the conference talk – “The Rise of All Printed Modules” – given by Dr. Toby Meyer, CEO of Solaronix, at 1:30 pm the first day of the event.

We are looking forward to meeting you there!

More Information on DSC-IC 2010:
http://www.dsc-ic.com/

This new edition of our catalog also features many new products that we are excited to present. New brand names were also introduced to better identify our products. We are certain the changes and additions will help you to distinguish our product lines.

The Solaronix Catalog 2010 is available for free download, don't wait any longer and get it today!

solaronix_catalog.pdf
(PDF, 4.77 MB)

New in this edition:

Ruthenizer
Our Ruthenium dyes are now more easily identified with the brand name Ruthenizer. For instance, Ruthenium 535 is now Ruthenizer 535.

Sensidizer
This new brand gathers a range of products consisting of pure-organic dyes. Sensidizer SQ2 introduced recently is the first dye of this product line.

Mosalyte
Mosalyte is the brand name of a new product line consisting of non-volatile electrolytes.

IonLic
Our ionic liquids are now identified with the brand name IonLic to highlight their origins at Solaronix. For example, PMII is now IonLic PMII.

Platisol
The products formerly known as Platisol and Pt-Catalyst T/SP are now Platisol T and Platisol T/SP respectively, adopting the nomenclature of our titania pastes. The Platisol brand now clearly identifies all our platinum catalyst precursors.

Elcocarb
Elcocarb C/SP is the first member of the Elcocarb family. This novel and innovative product perfectly suits the production of highly conductive carbon counter-electrodes.

Meltonix
Our sealing films, which are now available in greater variety of thicknesses, are branded Meltonix. Once again, the names provide greater clarity. For example, SX1170-60 simply became Meltonix 1170-60.

PICTO, SERIO and MIMO
The evolution of our Dye Solar Cell and Module prototypes motivated the branding of our different designs. PICTO refers to our demonstration cells, which presents the possibility of an embedded pattern within the solar cells. SERIO identifies our serially connected modules. MIMO unveils the availability of our new all-printed monolithic module prototypes.

Lumixo, Sunirad, Solixon
Solaronix' testing equipment are the result of our unique simulated sunlight source. We decided to name this genuine light engine Lumixo. Lumixo is the heart of our Sunirad and Solixon machines, our light soaking units and solar simulators.

New Products:

• Elcocarb C/SP, our exclusive carbon paste for the deposition of conductive carbon layers by screen-printing,
• Mosalyte PMI-50, Mosalyte PMI-250, Mosalyte PMI-500, Mosalyte ADE-250, and Mosalyte EDE-300, the range of non-volatile electrolytes,
• Chenodeoxycholic Acid, the staining additive that is a must-have for enhancing performances,
• Meltonix 1170-100 and Meltonix 1170-100PF, the thickest choice of our sealing films,
• PETITO175-14, a PET plastic conductive substrate now available with 14 ohm/sq resistivity,
• MIMO 1010M11 and MIMO 3030M34 modules, to inaugurate the availability of our monolithic DSC module prototypes,
• Education Cell Kit and Demonstration Cell kit, easy ways for everyone to make electricity from sunlight.

New Equipment:

• Class-A spectrum quality for Sunirad and Solixon equipments.
• Sunirad light soakers in standard size and in different spectral classes.
• Economic Sunirad machine dedicated for a-Si and DSC testing.
• Custom units from the modular architecture of our Sunirad and Solixon equipment.

Ti-Nanoxide
The Ti-Nanoxide -LALT series has been discontinued for the sake of simplicity and clarity in our Ti-Nanoxide product line. The Ti-Nanoxide products are now divided into 3 categories based on printing technique, versatile for doctor-blading, screen-printing, and spin-coating. In these three categories, various transparencies of the sintered layer are available, as well as low temperature compatible versions (not including screen-printing inks).

At this occasion, we will present our new products and latest advances in Dye Solar Cell manufacturing. For the first time, we will present to the public some examples of DSCs built with one of our new Sensidizer organic dyes and using the recently introduced Elcocarb conductive paste. It is always a great pleasure for us to chat with our existing customers as well as all solar cell enthusiasts.

Hope to see you there!

The Solaronix team.

More information: www.hopv.org/HOPV10/

Sensitizer SQ2, which is a squaraine derivative, gives impressive blue to green colored solar cells enhancing our customers choice for eye-popping products. We hope to lead open the way to alternative colors and dye compositions for the future advances in the DSC industry. Possible applications are tandem cells that employ several dyes, and solar cells with tailored light transmission.

Dye Solar Cells are going green! Here is an example of one of our demonstration cells stained with Sensidizer SQ2, isn't it gorgeous?

More information: Sensidizer SQ2

Time and space have always been serious limiting factors for human beings. At Solaronix, our expanding business motivated our newest premises extension. We have doubled our space with our new building.

This extra room will allow us to continue our business expansion, including chemicals up-scaling and dye solar cell manufacturing. A large portion of our additional premises will be dedicated to the production of our exclusive testing equipment, with units available with several square meters of sample area. The additional building also hosts a new conference room ideal for organizing workshops. Our existing plant will be reallocated and entirely dedicated to our pilot line of Dye Solar Cell prototypes, with a specific focus on our exclusive all-printed modules.

These new facilities will help us to better serve our customers and to meet their increasing demands. See you soon on our premises!

Chenodeoxycholic Acid can improve the performances of Dye Solar Cells made with Ruthenizer 535 or Ruthenizer 535-bisTBA. The increase in performance with Ruthenizer 620-1H3TBA is so drastic that Chenodeoxycholic Acid is essentially mandatory.

Simply include this additive in your staining solutions to boost for performance of your solar cells!

Chemical structure of Chenodeoxycholic Acid

More information: Chenodeoxycholic Acid

Elcocarb C/SP is a novel and innovative product that suits the manufacturing of highly conductive carbon counter-electrodes perfectly. This carbon paste can be screen-printed, and has no swelling behavior. Its adhesion is excellent on many substrates. It is even possible to stack several prints to achieve the desired electrode thickness and resistivity. A conductivity as low as 7 ohm/sq can be obtained with a 15 micron thick Elcocarb C/SP fired layer. Firing at 450°C leads to a highly conductive, hydrophobic and non-metallic layer that remains porous. The chemical inertness of this layer allows a broad range of material compatibility with no risk of corrosion.

Researchers can benefit from retail quantities available from 10 g to 1 kg, while industries will be interested to learn about the availability of Elcocarb C/SP in bulk.

More information: Elcocarb C/SP

Now Solaronix introduces Meltonix 1170-100, a 100 microns thick sealing film. Meltonix 1170-100 benefits from the expertise and all the acclaimed features of our existing Meltonix products, while providing an additional possibility for tuning the interstice between the electrodes of Dye Solar Cells. Meltonix 1170-100PF also with a protection foil one one side, affording an enhanced sealing process in two steps instead of one.

With three thicknesses available, 25, 60 and 100 microns, coupled with the optional protection foil for each of them, the Meltonix product line from Solaronix now provides an even more comprehensive set of sealing choices to the Dye Solar Cell community.

More information: Meltonix 1170-100 Series

The Dye Solar Cells and Modules prototypes manufactured at Solaronix are shown in this catalog as well as cell kits for those who'd like to experiment their own cells from ready-to-use electrodes.

The catalog comprises the descriptions of our testing equipments. This covers the exclusive plasma light engine that Solaronix has developed over the years, now able to achieve Class-A spectrum over wide surfaces with an excellent stability and efficiency.

Don't wait anymore and explore our catalog!

solaronix_catalog.pdf
(PDF, 27.2 MB)

They address in this exhibition their vision of disruptive solar cell technologies such as the Dye Solar Cell. Among the revolutionary design projects presented, several creations proudly feature Solaronix Dye Solar Cells coming in special deliveries of shapes, transparency and colors.

Kusto (Damien Ummel and Thierry Didot, ECAL)

By day, the colored surface harnesses sunlight unfolded onto a window glass. At night, it folds and turns into a lamp-shape that shines a subtle and warm light from the energy stored during the day.

Solar Garden Glow (Emma Caselton, RCA)

A soft and entertaining light glows in the night. The cord wraps around a tree branch while the artificial leafs collect energy by day. At night, the same leafs are illuminated thanks to the electricity generated the hours earlier.

Faro (Dirk Winkel, RCA)

Passing at night along the pathway, a surprising and pleasant light evolves. The graphic design of the solar cells turns them into ornamented glass tiles at night, creating an unexpected visual effect.

Solarwall (Jenny Redd, CCA)

Solarwall is an office furniture that produces energy. It separates workspaces and transforms ambiant light into electricity. Coziness can be tuned up by the color and opacity of the cells while office workers can hook up their devices onto the power plugs.

More information: http://www.epfl-ecal-lab.ch/page32323-en.html

Once again, our team will be pleased to answer your questions and received feedback from customers. Visitors will have a chance to grab our product catalog and have a look at the different sorts of Dye Solar Cells manufactured in our premises.

Photograph by Ivo Rovira & Ana Ponce

More information:
http://www.hopvconference.org/

Solaronix will be pleased to welcome you on its booth during these days. Visitors will have the opportunity to look at operational Dye Solar Cells and modules as well as Solaronix' exclusive light engine for the simulation of sunlight.

Information:
http://www.dsc-ic.com/

Solaronix will be pleased to welcome you on its booth during these days.

Information:
http://www.nanoeurope.com/

"Zwei Schweizer Brüder erfinden die Solarzelle neu" (Two Swiss Brothers Reinventing the Solar Cell) can be viewed from the TV's archive on the following page:
http://www.sf.tv/sf1/10vor10/index.php?docid=20070510

The video excerpt can be played directly too:
http://real.xobix.ch/ramgen/sfdrs/10vor10/2007/10vor10_10052007-450k.rm?start=0:19:27.265&end=0:23:57.171

Browse this issue from the journal's archive:
http://beobachter.ch/edition_inhalt.asp?session=2C1C8D10-53C4-4BB1-8516-838F492041FB&EditionID=301

Access the article online:
http://www.beobachter.ch/artikel.asp?session=2C1C8D10-53C4-4BB1-8516-838F492041FB&AssetID=11265

Renewable Energy World Magazine, March - April 2007, Volume 10, Number 2, p 107-109.

Visitors can read the entire article online from the magazine's archive at the following address:
http://www.renewable-energy-world.com/display_article/288209/121/CRTIS/none/none/Flexible-energy:-Research-on-organic-solar-cells-has-entered-an-exciting-phase/

Bilan, 13.09.2006-26.09.2006, Number 210, p 37-43.

View this issue:
http://www.bilan.ch/bilan/numero/210/index.htm

Visit Napolyde's website:
www.napolyde.org

Download the brochure:
http://www.napolyde.org/Download/Napolyde%20Brochure.pdf

Visit Orionsolar's website:
www.orionsolar.net

Visit the website:
www.fullspectrum-eu.org

Download the leaflet:
http://www.fullspectrum-eu.org/downloads_external/Folleto_de_ellos.pdf

Solaronix will expose during the congress and looks forward to meet you on its booth.