Nanotechnology Increases Life of Plastic Solar Cells

A research team from the University of Alberta along with the National Institute for Nanotechnology has worked together for extending the operational life of unsealed plastic solar cells to eight months from just hours.

A chemistry researcher of University of Alberta David Rider says that plastic solar cell technology is an extremely competitive field and the team’s accomplishment is an achievement. He added that plastic solar cell products that are lightweight and inexpensive resemble a sheet or blanket that can be rolled up, and is likely to change the overall solar energy industry.

However, the team did encounter problems during the research stages in the form of electrodes, a key circuitry element that is needed for electricity extraction in an efficient way from solar cells. Rider mentioned that an electrode priming coating was unstable and migrated through the circuitry, thus limiting the performance of the solar cells to around 10 hours. Therefore, the research team designed a novel polymer coating which outlasted the original by more than a margin of 5,000%. By the time their findings were submitted to a science journal, the novel plastic solar cell had already clocked a high capacity performance of 500 hours.