RESEARCH
June 29, 2009

See-through plastic promises solar coatings

Come up with the right plastic and you can make windows that generate electricity.

 The copolymer, made with polyfluorene and carbon buckyballs, is a semi-transparent semiconductor material. Solar cells made with the material convert 4.5 percent of light to electricity, which is relatively low for solar cells in general but high for transparent polymer cells.

The research could lead to inexpensive power generating coatings for building and vehicle windows.

Research paper:
Efficient Polymer Solar Cells with Thin Active Layers Based on Alternating Polyfluorene Copolymer/Fullerene Bulk Heterojunctions
Advanced Materials, published online June 24, 2009

Researchers' contact:
Yang Yang Laboratory

Related stories and briefs:
Anti-glare coating makes see-through solar cell -- related research
Window generates electricity -- related research


Back to ERN June 29, 2009

Share

Feeds

News  | Blog

E-mail headlines
Energy-related books and products from Amazon.com

Home   Archive   Eric on Energy   Researchers   Links   About   Contact
© Copyright Technology Research News 2008-2010. All rights reserved.