Researchers To Develop The Next Generation Of Plastic Solar Cells
By Nick March 25, 2008
Threatened by the progress made by printed and inkjet-printed solar cells, the developers of plastic solar cells needed to improve their technology and came up with a new generation of solar cells. The researchers that managed a breakthrough came from the United States and Austria.
They claim that the next generation of solar cells should be made of heterojunction materials like semiconducting polymers and fullerenes which are environmentally-friendly, low-cost and which made them to improve their efficiency.
Alan J. Heeger and his team are looking to control better the nanoscale morphology which might be the key to the efficiency rate that the researchers always tried to increase. Currently the plastic solar cells do not perform as expected but with this new project which is based on using alkanedithiols (a class of chemicals) as processing additives, Heeger expects to complete his quest.
Heeger, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for pioneering research on conducting polymer, managed to improve the efficiency of plastic solar cells from 3.4% to 5.1% which makes it one of the highest efficiency-rate so far.
Topics: Energy |
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