The future of solar technology: new technology makes foldable cells a practical reality

摘要

Current solar cells are restricted to rigid, flat panels that are difficult to store in large numbers and integrate into everyday appliances, including phones, windows, vehicles, or indoor devices. One problem prevents this formidable technology from breaking through: to be integrated into these items, solar cells need to be foldable, to bend at will repeatedly without breaking. Traditional conducting materials used in solar cells lack flexibility, creating a huge obstacle in developing fully foldable cells. International research team creates solar cells with unprecedented flexibility and resistance. The researchers identified single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) films, owing to their high transparency and mechanical resilience. The only problem is that SWNTs struggle to adhere to the substrate surface when force is applied (such as bending) and requires chemical doping. To address this problem, the scientists embedded the conducting layer into a polyimide (PI) substrate, filling the void spaces in the nanotubes. To ensure maximum performance, they also 'doped' the resulting material to increase its conductivity. By introducing small impurities into the SWNT-PI nanocomposite layer, the energy needed for electrons to move across the structure becomes much smaller, and hence more charge can be generated for a given amount of current.