• Question: how long does it take for you to make one leaf?

    Asked by tomboy to Stuart on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Stuart Archer

      Stuart Archer answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      It varies quite a lot, depending on how much of each of the various components you have available. There are three main components:

      1) A dye – a molecule that absorbs light and converts it to electrical energy
      2) The substrate – a ‘semiconductor’ (like silicon in computer chips) material mounted on a glass surface that transfers the electrical energy to the useful parts of the leaf.
      3) The ‘catalyst’ – this actually carries out the chemical reaction to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen (think about the chemical formula for water?)

      If we have the dye, the substrate and the catalyst made and ready to go, you can build a ‘leaf’ in a couple of hours. If you have to start from scratch, some of the dyes can take over a month to make, same for the catalysts! We tend to make them on a reasonably large scale so we have plenty available though.

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