Ultrathin and lightweight organic solar cells with high flexibility

Martin Kaltenbrunner (), Matthew S. White, Eric D. Głowacki, Tsuyoshi Sekitani, Takao Someya, Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci and Siegfried Bauer
Additional contact information
Martin Kaltenbrunner: Department of Soft Matter Physics
Matthew S. White: Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells (LIOS), Johannes Kepler University Linz
Eric D. Głowacki: Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells (LIOS), Johannes Kepler University Linz
Tsuyoshi Sekitani: The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
Takao Someya: The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci: Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells (LIOS), Johannes Kepler University Linz
Siegfried Bauer: Department of Soft Matter Physics

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Application-specific requirements for future lighting, displays and photovoltaics will include large-area, low-weight and mechanical resilience for dual-purpose uses such as electronic skin, textiles and surface conforming foils. Here we demonstrate polymer-based photovoltaic devices on plastic foil substrates less than 2 μm thick, with equal power conversion efficiency to their glass-based counterparts. They can reversibly withstand extreme mechanical deformation and have unprecedented solar cell-specific weight. Instead of a single bend, we form a random network of folds within the device area. The processing methods are standard, so the same weight and flexibility should be achievable in light emitting diodes, capacitors and transistors to fully realize ultrathin organic electronics. These ultrathin organic solar cells are over ten times thinner, lighter and more flexible than any other solar cell of any technology to date.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1772 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1772

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1772

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().