Infrared Plastic Solar Cells??!! power in your hands

Overview

      Have you ever wondered how it would be if you could harness power out of literally any surface?! Yes, we can now cover any surface with solar cells and turn any mass into a power source. The Infrared plastic solar cells, also called as the organic solar cells have made it possible with the infusion of nanotechnology. 

In this post, I'll be writing about Infrared plastic solar cells; its working and its applications while trying not to get in to intricate technical details 😉. But before getting into IR plastic solar cells, we need to know how does a normal solar cell work (because they all work on similar principle).

Same old Solar Cells...

      Solar cells are devices that convert light energy from sun into electricity. Now remember that, the current is nothing but flow of electrons. These solar panels are made up of materials called semiconductors(they are semi-conductors because they conduct only when they are applied with certain amount of energy); when solar cells are exposed to light, the semiconductors in the cells emit electrons which constitutes the flow of current. This emission of electrons when light(radiation of any kind) hits a surface is termed as the famous phenomenon: Photoelectric effect. Albert Einstein was awarded Nobel prize for this discovery in 1921.

      These conventional plastic solar cells have been in use since decades but, the maximum efficiency obtainable from them is merely 35%. Also, these solar cells do not work on cloudy days which renders it useless during rainy and winter days. This led to a new innovation leading to new range of solar cells embedded with nanotechnology.

The new and improved! Infrared Plastic Solar Cells...

      Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the suns power into electric energy even on a cloudy day. Plastic solar cells are not new. But existing ones are only able to harness the sun’s visible light. While half of the sun’s power lies in the visible spectrum, the other half lies in the infrared spectrum. The new material is the first plastic compound that is able to harness infrared portion. The plastic material uses nanotechnology and the 1stgeneration solar cells that can harness the sun’s invisible infrared rays.

Infrared Plastic Solar cells

     The researchers combined specially designed nano particles called quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the infrared region. With further advances the new plastic solar cell could allow up to 30% of sun’s radiant energy to be harnessed completely when compared to only 6% in today's best plastic solar cells.

Working of Infrared Plastic solar cells..

        The technology takes advantage of recent advances in nanotechnology, specifically the production of nano crystals and nano rods. These are chemically pure clusters of 100 to 100000 atoms with dimensions of the order of a nano-metre. Because of their small size, they exhibit unusual and interesting properties governed by quantum mechanics, such as the absorption of different colors of light depending upon their size.  

       Nano rods were made of a reliable size out of cadmium selenide, a semi conducting material. Then the nano rods are mixed with a plastic semiconductor called p3ht-poly-(3-hexylthiophene). These nano rods act as a metallic surface and when they absorb light of a specific wavelength, they emit electrons which flows through the circuit to constitute current. 

Applications of Infrared Plastic Solar cells

• The plastic formulations also open the possibility of printing solar cells onto various surfaces, much as how ink is printed on a newspaper, because of this property they can be painted anywhere and can be used as solar cells for converting sun's radiation into electricity.

• The painted screens can be used to power portable electronic goods like cell phones, iPods, laptops and pocket calculators etc. anywhere and everywhere. 

• Ultra high efficient plastic solar cells can even work under low light conditions and also under artificial light along with the increased wavelength region.

Advantages of Infrared Plastic Solar cells over conventional solar cells

• They are considered to be 30% more efficient when compared to conventional solar cells. 

• Traditional solar cells are bulky and need a very clean and sophisticated environment for manufacture. Whereas plastic solar cells are very compact and can be manufactured in a laboratory beaker.
  

• Cost of manufacture is reduced drastically compared to 1st and 2nd generation of solar cells.

• These cells are literally flexible and are semitransparent making it easier to accommodate on any surface.