Experts craft world’s top flexible solar cell for energy generation

A team of researchers has achieved a milestone by developing lightweight and highly efficient stretchable solar cells for energy generation in electronic gadgets. Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) declare it as the “world’s highest performing stretchable organic solar cell.” The development is unique as it utilizes organic material to build the photoactive layer of the solar cell, which turns light into energy.

Organic solar cells are particularly well suited for incorporation into wearable electrical devices due to their lightweight and flexible nature. This innovation has enormous potential for the future of flexible, energy efficient wearable technologies. The development of the polymer material As per the official release, the development of stretchable solar cells is highly challenging as they must deliver high electrical performance as well as exhibit mechanical elasticity.

This trade off between high efficiency and flexibility has hindered their widespread application in wearable devices. In this latest invention, they designed a conductive polymer material that effectively meets both of these stringent requirements. Through chemical bonding, the researchers linked a highly stretchy polymer with an electrically conductive polymer possessing exceptional electrical properties.

This resulted in a novel conductive polymer with not only the greatest recorded photovoltaic conversion efficiency for organic solar cells, but also a stretchability that is ten times that of conventional devices. The newly developed stretchable solar cell can undergo a remarkable 40 percent stretch during operation, showcasing its potential for integration into wearable devices.

This breakthrough not only increases the efficiency of solar cells but also tackles a long standing barrier of flexibility, leading to the development of high tech wearable electronics. “Through this research, we not only developed the world’s best performing stretchable organic solar cell, but it is also significant that we developed a new polymer that can be applicable as a base material for various electronic devices that need to be malleable and/or elastic,” said Professor Bumjoon Kim, in the With the market for wearable electric gadgets quickly expanding, this advancement aims to fulfill demand while also promising a future in which energy efficient, flexible electronics effortlessly blend into our daily lives.

The findings were reported in the journal High power conversion efficiency (PCE) and mechanical robustness are dual requisites for wearable applications of organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, we simultaneously achieve high electronic and mechanical performances in OSCs using conjugated polymer donors ( Ds) consisting of electroactive rigid and soft blocks.

Specifically, we integrate rigid and soft blocks to synthesize block copolymerized Ds (D180.8 PEHDT0.2) having an appropriate molecular weight of D18 blocks to reach the effective conjugation length and of PEHDT blocks to achieve high mechanical properties..