Ultra-thin organic solar cell with high conversion efficiency

Tinuku - An international research team announced has developed an "ultra-thin organic solar cell" that works well in high heat and high energy conversion efficiency. They say the newly developed device can be applied to clothing to harvest sunlight and directly to fill the gadget.

Researchers from Riken, Toray Industries Inc., the University of Tokyo, the Santa Barbara campus of the University of California, Waseda University, etc announced the development of solar cells that can be directly attached to clothing by using a hot-melted adhesive bonding process.

The thickness of ultra-thin organic solar cells developed today includes everything from substrate to 3μm sealing film. However the maximum energy conversion efficiency is only 10% and the element breaks even at 100C. Also, after being stored for 80 days in the atmosphere causes performance to deteriorate by 20%.

This time, the research group developed "PBDTTT-OFT" is a new semiconductor polymer featuring high energy conversion efficiency and high heat resistance. Its structure is similar to "PBDTTT-EFT or PTB7-Th" which has been widely used as organic solar cell material.

The team found that the chains made it possible to form films with high crystallinity and that the decrease in conductivity caused by heat was less than in the case of conventional materials.