Solar energy market is making rapid strides forward in past decade or two. Yet solar energy is not making its way in to the homes of consumers across the planet as rapidly as one wants it to. The conversion from traditional sources of energy to alternative fuel has still many hurdles. The major trouble is the fact that most people across the planet are either unwilling to pay that high initial amount or unable to pay it despite long term benefits. Governments almost are doing little to nothing in terms of providing support in this regard. But the future is looking better with Plastic Solar Cells and ‘Sunny days’ are back here today as we are looking at solar technology today, unlike the wet Hydro technology yesterday.
Researchers in the United States and Austria report an advance toward the next generation of plastic solar cells, which are widely heralded as a low cost, environmentally-friendly alternative to inorganic solar cells for meeting rising energy demands. Alan J. Heeger and colleagues point out that plastic solar cell fabricated from bulk hetero-junction materials comprising semi-conducting polymers and fullerenes, have already demonstrated promising performance. Now by plastic I hope it is not something that is hard to dispose with. We do not need more non-biodegradable nonsense.
However, researchers do not understand how to control the nano-scale morphology and are looking for ways to optimize the solar cell performance for practical use. In the new study, Heeger and colleagues found that adding a class of chemicals called alkanedithiols as processing additives improves both the morphology and the solar cell performance. They showed that by utilizing alkanedithiols as processing additives, the efficiency of the plastic solar cells increased from 3.4 percent to 5.1 percent, among the highest efficiencies achieved to date for this type of solar cell. That is still a long way away from commercial viability, but it is still a step forward. I just hope though that this is bio-degradable. I stress on it so much as a future technology that is hard to dispose will be not much of a use. Let’s see how the Plastic Solar Cells go from here on.
