Flexible Silicon Solar Cells Use 99% Less Material

Researchers have found a way to make flexible silicon solar cells using only 1 percent of the material used in conventional solar cells.
The new material, reported on Sunday in Nature Materials, uses conventional silicon configured into micron-sized wires (a micron is one-millionth of a meter) instead of brittle wafers and encases them in a flexible polymer that can be rolled or bent.
Solar cells, which convert solar energy into electricity, are in high demand because of higher oil prices and concerns over climate change.


Many companies, including Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp and Germany's Q-Cells SE, are making thin-film solar cells using organic materials such as polymers, but they typically are less efficient at converting solar energy into electricity than conventional cells using silicon.
The study is among the latest to combine the flexibility of the new organic or carbon-containing films with the high efficiency of silicon, which is heavy and stiff.
A similar effort is under way in the lab of John Rogers, a professor of materials science at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Campaign, who is working on ways to make inorganic materials more flexible.
While many companies are investing in organic solar cells--basically materials like plastic that contain carbon--Rogers said these materials have relatively low performance, less long-term reliability and an unproven cost structure.
"We like the inorganics--trying to adapt them and use them in nonstandard ways," Rogers said in a telephone interview.
Last year, his team reported on a new manufacturing process that creates thin arrays of solar cells that are flexible enough to be rolled around a pencil and transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings or cars.
"We can make them stretch like a rubber band or bendable like a sheet of plastic," he said.

Photo courtesy EcoGeek

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