by Shane Henson — January 30, 2013—Cell phones and other small devices individuals depend on when on the go may soon not need a charger carried along with them, thanks to a partnership between Stanford University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
The university and NREL have showed that thin-film solar cells less than one micron thick can be removed from a silicon substrate used for fabrication by dipping them in water at room temperature. Then, after exposure to heat of about 90°C for a few seconds, they can attach to almost any surface to serve as a battery.
The cells’ ability to adhere to a universal substrate is unusual; most thin-film cells must be affixed to a special substrate, say NREL researchers. The peel-and-stick approach allows the use of flexible polymer substrates and high processing temperatures.
The resulting flexible, lightweight, and transparent devices can then be integrated onto curved surfaces such as military helmets and portable electronics, transistors and sensors, or be used in such applications as changing the tint on windows.
In the future, the collaborators will test peel-and-stick cells that are processed at even higher temperatures and offer more power and more extensive applications.
A scientific paper covering the research, “Peel and Stick: Fabricating Thin Film Solar Cells on Universal Substrates,” appears in the online version of Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of the British scientific journal Nature.
