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High-performance stretchable solar cells

Date:
January 4, 2024
Source:
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Summary:
Engineers have succeeded in implementing a stretchable organic solar cell by applying a newly developed polymer material that demonstrated the world's highest photovoltaic conversion efficiency (19%) while functioning even when stretched for more than 40% of its original state. This new conductive polymer has high photovoltaic properties that can be stretched like rubber. The newly developed polymer is expected to play a role as a power source for next-generation wearable electronic devices.
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Professor Bumjoon Kim's research team in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering succeeded in implementing a stretchable organic solar cell by applying a newly developed polymer material that demonstrated the world's highest photovoltaic conversion efficiency (19%) while functioning even when stretched for more than 40% of its original state.  This new conductive polymer has high photovoltaic properties that can be stretched like rubber. The newly developed polymer is expected to play a role as a power source for next-generation wearable electronic devices.

With the market for wearable electric devices growing rapidly, stretchable solar cells that can function under strain have received considerable attention as an energy source. To build such solar cells, it is necessary that their photoactive layer, which converts light into electricity, shows high electrical performance while possessing mechanical elasticity. However, satisfying both of these two requirements is challenging, making stretchable solar cells difficult to develop.

On December 26, a KAIST research team from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) led by Professor Bumjoon Kim announced the development of a new conductive polymer material that achieved both high electrical performance and elasticity while introducing the world's highest-performing stretchable organic solar cell.

Organic solar cells are devices whose photoactive layer, which is responsible for the conversion of light into electricity, is composed of organic materials. Compared to existing non-organic material-based solar cells, they are lighter and flexible, making them highly applicable for wearable electrical devices. Solar cells as an energy source are particularly important for building electrical devices, but high-efficiency solar cells often lack flexibility, and their application in wearable devices have therefore been limited to this point.

The team led by Professor Kim conjugated a highly stretchable polymer to an electrically conductive polymer with excellent electrical properties through chemical bonding, and developed a new conductive polymer with both electrical conductivity and mechanical stretchability. This polymer meets the highest reported level of photovoltaic conversion efficiency (19%) using organic solar cells, while also showing 10 times the stretchability of existing devices. The team thereby built the world's highest performing stretchable solar cell that can be stretched up to 40% during operation, and demonstrated its applicability for wearable devices.

Professor Kim said, "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 needs to be malleable and/or elastic."

This research, conducted by KAIST researchers Jin-Woo Lee and Heung-Goo Lee as first co-authors in cooperation with teams led by Professor Taek-Soo Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Professor Sheng Li from the Department of CBE, was published in Joule on December 1 (Paper Title: Rigid and Soft Block-Copolymerized Conjugated Polymers Enable High-Performance Intrinsically-Stretchable Organic Solar Cells).

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea.


Story Source:

Materials provided by The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Jin-Woo Lee, Heung-Goo Lee, Eun Sung Oh, Sun-Woo Lee, Tan Ngoc-Lan Phan, Sheng Li, Taek-Soo Kim, Bumjoon J. Kim. Rigid- and soft-block-copolymerized conjugated polymers enable high-performance intrinsically stretchable organic solar cells. Joule, 2023; DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2023.11.005

Cite This Page:

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). "High-performance stretchable solar cells." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 January 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240104122016.htm>.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). (2024, January 4). High-performance stretchable solar cells. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 31, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240104122016.htm
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). "High-performance stretchable solar cells." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240104122016.htm (accessed October 31, 2024).

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