2018/05/11

 

 

 

          _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad The thinnest, light and flexible photovoltaic cells are feather-light and can even be placed on foam. Such thin batteries can be placed anywhere, from smart clothing to helium balloons. One of the researchers, Vladimir Bulovi? of MIT, said: "It's so light that if you put it on your clothes or your laptop, you won't even feel it's there. These batteries can be used as an easy extension of existing devices. "What's exciting about this experiment is the versatility of this battery, even though it's still in the proof-of-concept stage. The key to making this new type of battery is that the researchers combined the battery, substrate and protective layer into one process. One advantage of this is that by making the cell and substrate together, the latter is protected from dust intrusion and other contamination. A flexible polymer called parylene was used as the substrate and coating, while an organic material called dibutyl phthalate (DBP) was used as the main light-absorbing layer. Unlike traditional solar cell manufacturing processes, the entire process is done in a room-temperature vacuum chamber without the use of any chemical solvents or harsh chemicals. Vapor deposition techniques, where heat, pressure and chemical reactions form extremely thin coatings on special materials, are used to make both cells and substrates.

What makes the breakthrough so important, the MIT team says, is the technology itself, not the materials used. The resulting ultralight and flexible cells are only one-fifth the thickness of a human hair and one-thousandth the thickness of current glass-based cells (about a micrometer), but they are equally efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. Actually, they're a little too slim. "If you breathe too hard, it blows it off," says another researcher, Joel Jean. According to the inventors, a vacuum-based substrate process they have spent years perfecting can coat solar cells on fabric, on paper or almost any material.

      _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5 in space or in high altitude, the weight is very important These batteries could play an important role, even if mass production is currently taking some time.