The emergence of electric cars has become a hot topic in various parts of the world. With electric power, this car can take the driver towards their destination comfortably.

Covered from an article on liputan6.com, it is said that electric cars require 2,000 – 2,500 watts of power with a long charging time of 6 – 8 hours for a single full charge. With this power, electric cars can cover a distance of more than 300 miles.

On the other hand, in 2019, electricity consumption in Indonesia reached 1,084 kiloWatts per hour (kWh)/capita. In 2020, the government targets electricity consumption to increase to 1,142 kWh/capita. The presence of this electric car will certainly increase the value of conventional electricity consumption in Indonesia.

To overcome the use of conventional electricity, recently solar cells have been developed to meet the electrical energy of electric cars. With the existence of solar cells in electric cars, the charging period for electric cars can certainly be longer.

CIGS thin-film solar cells are the right choice for electric cars. CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-selenide) solar cells have a fairly high energy conversion (19%), small dimensions and lightweight, and long life.

This fact is used by three students of Chemical Engineering Universitas Brawijaya to increase the energy conversion of CIGS solar cells.

With the guidance of Supriyono, S.T., M.T., gathered in the team are Wahyu Diski Pratama, Bidayatul Khoiriyah, and Bella Octa Avenia.

Wahyu and his team combined n-type material based on TiO2 with silica (Si) which has a large surface area.

“For this study, we used silica as a TiO2 matrix framework to minimize particle-matrix aggregation, so that the performance of the solar cell is more stable and durable,” said Wahyu as Team Leader.

It doesn’t stop there, the silica used by the Wahyu team is silica extracted from geothermal sludge. This geothermal sludge is the solid waste from geothermal power plants. The silica content (in the form of SiO2) in it reaches 97.3%.

“In addition, the utilization of geothermal sludge is also expected to increase the added value of the waste, which is very interesting to study,” added another team member, Bella.

The team has carried out this research for two months since last June and will apply this innovation as secondary energy in electric cars

Wahyu and his friends will compete so that they can represent Universitas Brawijaya at the XXXIV National Student Scientific Week (PIMNAS) which will be held in October 2021. (humasft)