Solar Cells Thinner Than Spider Silk

Solar Cells Thinner Than Spider Silk Researchers have developed flexible, stretchable polymer-based solar cells on plastic foil substrates thinner than spider silk and able to generate 10 watts per gram. The image above depicts the bending flexibility of the cell demonstrated by it being wrapped around a human hair with a radius of 35 microns. The substrate used for the cell is a commercially available form of Mylar 1. Martin Kaltenbrunner, from JKU's Institute of Experimental Physics. While not the kind of solar cell you would use in traditional solar panels - silicon based PV is still far superior to organic photovoltaics when it comes to efficiency - the development has applications for electronic textiles, synthetic skin and robotics. "In all of these areas it is important that cells not only be highly efficient, but also light and flexible. "The basic system can also be applied to electrical circuitry which would be something that the industrial sector, for example, would take interest in. The total device is only 1. 9 microns thick and around one-quarter of the thickness is the active solar cell. Solar Cells Thinner Than Spider Silk Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 08/04/2012