From frog venom to solar panels

Solar panels that can be painted on the wall is a dream of one of the Bio21 Institute's recruits, organic chemist Prof Andrew Holmes.

"Andrew and his team have already invented and commercialised a low-cost computer display while in Cambridge. Now they plan to apply the same ideas to create low-cost plastic solar panels," said Prof Dick Wettenhall, director of the Bio21 Institute speaking at the opening of the University of Melbourne's new $100 million institute.

Prof Holmes returned to Melbourne from Britain in October 2004, attracted by a package of federal and state funding including a Federation Fellowship, a VESKI Fellowship and a custom-designed laboratory at the Bio21 Institute.

"But what attracted me most," he said, "was the opportunity to combine my chemistry knowledge and skills to biological issues, and the opportunity to work on new technology for solar cells desperately needed if Australia is going to meet its long-term needs for sustainable power generation."

In the early 1980s, Prof Holmes' team at Cambridge was working on ways to make the active ingredients of the venom of the South American poison arrow frog. However, they made a new plastic which glowed green if an electrical current passed through it.

The end result was a new kind of computer screen and a company, Cambridge Display Technology.

Now in Melbourne, Prof Holmes is taking the next step - turning light-emitting plastics into light-absorbing plastics.

"I believe these plastics could be used to create low cost solar panels. They won't be as efficient as silicon-based panels, but their low cost will allow them to be used where silicon panels are too expensive."

Prof Holmes is working with a coalition of organisations including: CSIRO Molecular Science and the CRC for Polymers.