Inkjet News

New plastics promise to slash the cost of key solar panel components

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen, 08 Apr 2010

Solar panel components that can be printed using technology akin to an inkjet cartridge may not be too far away from commercialisation, if a team of researchers at Princeton University have their way.

A group of scientists at the university announced last week that it has developed a way to treat plastic that will make it highly conductive for electricity after it has been moulded into different shapes.

The technique, developed by researchers at the University’s Organic and Polymer Electronics Laboratory, could be used to dramatically lower the cost of solar cells by replacing costly indium tin oxide (ITO), which has traditionally been used as a transparent conducting metal in solar panels.

The approach would also provide solar panel manufacturers with a more flexible conductive material, potentially opening the door for a wide range of new panel designs.

Conductive plastics have been available for some time, but their characteristics mean that processing them into a usable design degraded their ability to conduct electricity.

However, the Princeton researchers claim that their new production process means the plastics can be shaped without reducing their conductive capacity.

The secret to the new approach lies in the plastics being treated with an acid after they are shaped, in a process known as post-disposition solvent annealing.

"This process has enabled a wide incorporation of conducting polymers in organic electronics; conducting polymers that are not typically processable can now be deposited from solution and their productivity subsequently enhanced to practical levels via a simple and straightforward solvent annealing process, " the team said in its paper describing the process, which was published in the 8 March issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy Of Sciences in the US.

The new technique could feasibly be used to produce solar cells and other optical electronics such as flexible displays in large quantities using industrial printers.

Yueh-Lin Loo, a former assistant professor at the University of Texas, who led the research team said the approach could potentially be scaled up using mass production presses similar to those used to print newspapers.

"Being able to essentially paint on electronics is a big deal," Loo said. " You could distribute the plastics in cartridges the way printer ink is sold, and you wouldn’t need exotic machines to print the patterns."

She added that a range of other applications could be used for the technology, including medical devices that change colour according to levels of nitric oxide, which is a key indicator of ear infection in children.

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