Imagine a world where everyday objects — walls, windows, doors, even your backpack — could be used to generate clean energy. Thanks to a new discovery in organic solar cell technology, this dream may extend beyond mere imagination.
As Interesting Engineering detailed, a project out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has found a way to enhance the stability of organic solar cells (OSCs) by 50 percent. These cells may become a viable alternative to traditional silicon-based panels.
OSCs are a variant on the usual solar cells, which are the part of the solar panel that absorb the light and convert it to energy. The main development with these OSCs is that they are printed with a helix-like structure and made up of several layers of organic film.
"An OSC is comprised of several nanometer-thin layers of film," said Alec M. Damron, one of the researchers on the project. "By manipulating the processing conditions when printing the films, they can force the molecules to adopt different structures."
The technique sees the film printed more slowly, which allows liquid crystals to form in the process, improving both the stability and efficiency compared to other OSC models.
And because the OSCs are an opaque, nearly see-through material, the possibilities for these more stable OSCs are endless — and reliable. Researchers envision a future where these improved cells can be carried with an individual anywhere, such as on backpacks. Tents and even homes are other places that could be a source of renewable energy.
Environmentally speaking, these OSCs are a good alternative to traditional solar cells made of silicon, a material that has been shown to be inefficient and responsible for excessive waste in solar panels.
Now that the relationship between the physical process of building and the efficacy of the new OSC has been established, the researchers can shift focus on the space in which the cell will best be engineered, utilizing its already-existing strengths and capitalizing on those.
"People mainly focus on the material side and then the device side, but the middle is neglected," said chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying Diao. "And that's something we basically shed light on. We're lifting the curtain on the hidden process and, by doing so, we are providing pathways to creating better devices."
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