The ORION (Ordered inorganic-organic hybrids using ionic liquids for Emerging applications) project has the participation of 17 partners from 8 European countries.
The project aimed at introducing better solar PV panels with a mix of inorganic and organic materials and efficient storage batteries is being coordinated by Basque Country located CIDETEC (Centre for Electrochemical Technologies) and received its funding from Seventh Framework Program of the EU.
Researcher Germà Garcia at the University lab
The research is aimed to overcome the limitations of organic and inorganic materials used in the manufacture of solar panels such as the complicated processing of oxides, which are strong and difficult to work with and the use of plastic materials, which are easy to work with but susceptible to ecological degradation. The four year project, which commenced in the last part of 2009, is aimed at introducing a hybrid material that incorporates the best properties of organic and inorganic materials.
The research continues to find materials that are robust enough to develop and enable fixing a layer of polymer efficiently over a layer of oxide. The research is also aimed at introducing a PV technology that uses low cost solar cells when compared to the present silicon cells. The manufacture of silicon solar cells remains expensive due to the use of pure material and the production process.
The presently used batteries get degraded in a few years time due to the cyclability failures. The researchers are working on methods to improve the speed of loading and unloading cycles in the batteries to enable long and stable storage feature
The researchers after identifying proper materials and procedures will transfer the research results for applications in the development of hybrid solar cells and batteries with special configuration features to increase the efficiency of solar cells and to improve the energy storing capabilities of the presently used batteries.