Low-priced plastic photovoltaics
Photovoltaic devices, which tap the power of the sun and convert it to electricity, offer a green -- and potentially unlimited -- alternative to fossil fuel use. So why haven't solar technologies been more widely adopted?

This is an image of the polymer blend morphology without (left) and with (right) nanowires.
Imperial College/S. Wood & J. Bailey
Quite simply, "they're too expensive," says Ji-Seon Kim, a senior lecturer in experimental solid-state physics at Imperial College London, who, along with her colleagues, has come up with a technology that might help bring the prices down.
"To collect a lot of sunlight you need to cover a large area in solar panels, which is very expensive for traditional inorganic -- usually silicon -- photovoltaics," explains Kim. The high costs arise because traditional panels must be made from high purity crystals that require high temperatures and vacuum conditions to manufacture.
A cheaper solution is to construct the photovoltaic devices out of organic compounds -- building what are essentially plastic solar cells. Organic semiconducting materials, and especially polymers, can be dissolved to make an ink and then simply "printed" in a very thin layer, some 100 billionths of a meter thick, over a large area. "Covering a large area in plastic is much cheaper than covering it in silicon, and as a result the cost per Watt of electricity-generating capacity has the potential to be much lower," she says.
One major difficulty with doing this, however, is controlling the arrangement of polymer molecules within the thin layer. In their paper, Kim and colleagues describe a new method for exerting such control. "We have developed an advanced structural probe technique to determine the molecular packing of two different polymers when they are mixed together," she says. By manipulating how the molecules of the two different polymers pack together, Kim and her colleagues created ordered pathways -- or "nanowires" -- along which electrical charges can more easily travel. This enables the solar cell to produce more electrical current, she said.
"Our work highlights the importance of the precise arrangement of polymer molecules in a polymer solar cell for it to work efficiently," says Kim, who expects polymer solar cells to reach the commercial market within 5 to 10 years.
Original publication
Most read news
Original publication
Sebastian Wood, Jong Soo Kim, et al., "Understanding the Relationship between Molecular Order and Charge Transport Properties in Conjugated Polymer Based Organic Blend Photovoltaic Devices", Journal of Chemical Physics, 2013
Topics
Organizations
Other news from the department science
These products might interest you

Eclipse by Wyatt Technology
FFF-MALS system for separation and characterization of macromolecules and nanoparticles
The latest and most innovative FFF system designed for highest usability, robustness and data quality

Spinsolve Benchtop NMR by Magritek
Spinsolve Benchtop NMR
Spinsolve is a revolutionary multinuclear NMR spectrometer that provides the best performance

HYPERION II by Bruker
FT-IR and IR laser imaging (QCL) microscope for research and development
Analyze macroscopic samples with microscopic resolution (5 µm) in seconds

Get the chemical industry in your inbox
By submitting this form you agree that LUMITOS AG will send you the newsletter(s) selected above by email. Your data will not be passed on to third parties. Your data will be stored and processed in accordance with our data protection regulations. LUMITOS may contact you by email for the purpose of advertising or market and opinion surveys. You can revoke your consent at any time without giving reasons to LUMITOS AG, Ernst-Augustin-Str. 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany or by e-mail at revoke@lumitos.com with effect for the future. In addition, each email contains a link to unsubscribe from the corresponding newsletter.
Most read news
More news from our other portals
Last viewed contents

WaCo Wassertechnik Consult GmbH - Hamburg, Germany
GFBiochemicals Starts Production Of Levulinic Acid

MAINCOR Rohrsysteme GmbH & Co. KG - Knetzgau, Germany

ACI Laser GmbH - Grammetal, Germany

Ferchau Engineering GmbH - Gummersbach, Germany

Gold from old phones is real prospect thanks to chemical advance
