Paper solar cells
29 Jul 2011 by Evoluted New Media
Imagine being able to print a solar cell onto newspaper, cloth, or plastic using special inks, which can be folded into a paper airplane, and still work at the end of it
Imagine being able to print a solar cell onto newspaper, cloth, or plastic using special inks, which can be folded into a paper airplane, and still work at the end of it
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A flexible and foldable array of solar cells that have been printed on a sheet of paper Credit: Patrick Gillooly |
Well now you can: researchers at MIT have developed a way to print photovoltaic cells onto untreated paper, newsprint, cloth or plastic which can be folded again and again – and still work.
The new printing process uses vapours instead of liquids and temperatures of less than 120°C, but it isn’t as simple as just printing an array of photovoltaic cells on a sheet of paper. Five layers of materials need to be deposited onto the same sheet in successive passes with a paper mask forming the pattern of cells on the surface. The process also has to take place in a vacuum chamber.
In their paper – published in Advanced Materials – researchers described printing a solar cell on PET and folding it and unfolding it 1,000 times, with no significant loss of performance.
“We have demonstrated quite thoroughly the robustness of this technology,” said Vladimir Bulović, professor of electrical engineering. “We think we can fabricate scalable solar cells that can reach record-high watts-per-kilogram performance. For solar cells with such properties, a number of technological applications open up.”
Test cells the group produced last year still work, demonstrating the long shelf life of the cells. It is hoped this research could dramatically lower the cost of solar cells, and that solar cells could be incorporated in everyday items such as window shades or wallpaper. The researchers have also demonstrated the paper can be coated with standard laminates to protect it from the elements.
However, the paper-printed solar cells are only about 1% efficient, but researchers are continuing to improve the device and believe they can increase the efficiency by further fine-tuning the material.
See the solar cell in action in Dynamic folding of a paper solar cells circuit under Lab News Recommends at www.youtube.com/labnews
Advanced Materials: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291521-4095
