MIT Team Creates Solar Cell Array on Sheet of Paper

July 12th, 2011 by Glenn Meyers

Solar cell manufacturing may be taking major strides forward by using carefully folded paper or plastic to develop functional arrays that can distribute electrons.

This news comes thanks to the work of an MIT team that demonstrates this printed document features a colored array of cell rectangles that power an LCD clock when wires are clipped to one end and a light is shined on the paper.

As MIT News puts it, “Almost as cheaply and easily as printing a photo on your inkjet, an inexpensive, simple solar cell has been created on that flimsy sheet, formed from special “inks” deposited on the paper. You can even fold it up to slip into a pocket, then unfold it and watch it generating electricity again in the sunlight.”

This is remarkable news for solar and renewable energy enthusiasts who find they continually have to accept the high costs that go hand-in-hand with solar technology.

The new technology, developed by a team of MIT researchers, was published July 8 in the journal Advanced Materials. The paper is co-authored by Karen Gleason, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering Vladimir Bulović; graduate student Miles Barr; and six other students and postdocs. Of importance, this work was supported by the Eni-MIT Alliance Solar Frontiers Program and the National Science Foundation.

The MIT team indicates this technique marks a huge departure from the systems that have been used so far to create most solar cells. Traditional cell technology requires exposing the substrates to potentially damaging conditions, either in the form of liquids or high temperatures.

The new printing process uses vapors, not liquids, and temperatures less than 120 degrees Celsius, say the developers, adding: “These ‘gentle’ conditions make it possible to use ordinary untreated paper, cloth or plastic as the substrate on which the solar cells can be printed.”

The process is considerably more complex than printing out a term paper, say the researchers. In order to create such an array of photovoltaic cells on the paper, five layers of material must be deposited onto the same sheet of paper in successive passes, using a mask (also made of paper) to form the patterns of cells on the surface. For do-it-yourself scientists, the process has to take place in a vacuum chamber.

According to MIT News, “The basic process is essentially the same as the one used to make the silvery lining in your bag of potato chips: a vapor-deposition process that can be carried out inexpensively on a vast commercial scale.”

The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper airplane. In their paper, the MIT researchers also describe printing a solar cell on a sheet of PET plastic (a thinner version of the material used for soda bottles) and then folding and unfolding it 1,000 times, with no significant loss of performance. By contrast, a commercially produced solar cell on the same material failed after a single folding.

“We have demonstrated quite thoroughly the robustness of this technology,” says Vladimir Bulović. In addition, because of the low weight of the paper or plastic substrate compared to conventional glass or other materials, “we think we can fabricate scalable solar cells that can reach record-high watts-per-kilogram performance. For solar cells with such properties, a number of technological applications open up.”

Indeed, a new design highway is being built for the solar industry.

This Gleason Lab video from Advanced Materials shows a paper solar cell circuit is dynamically folded and unfolded while the voltage is simultaneously measured on the meter. The paper photovoltaic is illuminated from below with simulated solar illumination.

Congratulations to all members of this MIT design team and its backers.

Photo via Patrick Gillooly

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Tags: Advanced Materials, Alexander, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, Gleason Lab, I. Michael Kasser, Karen Gleason, Miles Barr, MIT, MIT design team develops paper solar cells, MIT News, Vladimir Bulović

About the Author

Glenn Meyers is a writer, producer, and director. Meyers was editor and site director of Green Building Elements, a contributing writer for CleanTechnica, and is founder of Green Streets MediaTrain, a communications connection and eLearning hub. As an independent producer, he's been involved in the development, production and distribution of television and distance learning programs for both the education industry and corporate sector. He also is an avid gardener and loves sustainable innovation.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Miller/100000952005408 Bruce Miller

How does the American scientific thrust towards Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Tidal, Geothermal, Bio-mass, and even Humanure digestion for storable methane fuels and top-soil building fertilizers, stack up against the new LFTR reactor designs from China, that burn safer, more plentiful Thorium, are plutonium free, waste material safe after 3 hundred years. ten times cheaper to build, to fuel?
Will Americans ever exploit the North Dakota “Saudi-Arabia” of perpetual Wind Energy, after all, Denmark is now a net exporter of energy using their Wind Turbines? Ezekiel 34:29 Hemp? Will America ever legalize hemp, a plant that yields clothing, food, oil, shelter, medicine, to humankind, requires no fertilizers, only poor soil, no tilling, little care and can in some locations grow 3 or 4 crops a year?
As Asians buying new cars, (China built more new cars, with empty gasoline tanks, this year than all North America), drive the price of gasoline on world markets ever higher, with strong bids in stable, desirable, Yuan and the American bids fade with their weakening, fiat, over manipulated U.S. dollar, will Americans look away from the “Rubber wheeled gasoline fueled, McMansion at the factory door” paradigm, and adapt to the new Asian (Chinese) “Thorium nuclear electric bullet train network and associated nuclear-electric powered human infrastructure” the one daisy-chaining Pan-Eurasia as we speak, the one that requires no expensive foreign oil imports from parasite countries, OPEC and the Saudis, no need to support them in extreme riches as a tax on our efforts, our labor?
Can MIT match Tsinghua University, China, with similar or better reactors, Thorium reactors, safe reactors cheap to build reactors, humanocidal plutonium free reactors, reactors with benign waste after only 3 hundred year storage? Even above and beyond their “Solar Miracles”, ready for the commercial markets, restricted by the Corporatist grants, money MIT survives on, is coerced by, or at the very least, ‘influenced’ by? Can MIT produce a smaller effective safe LFTR Thorium fueled reactor or better? Will the existing U.S. Corporatist structure allow this? Remember the EV-1? Aero-gel, super insulations, NiMh batteries, Euro-styled 40% more efficient Turbo Diesel engines complete with “scrubbers”, Planned obsolescence in American car makes, models, and countless other scewings of the market-place in favor of the shareholders not the customers not the american people.
Electric38

I believe the efficiencies for this particular type are in the 1% area -bad news. The good news is that several countries have jumped into the challenge. We should be seeing several types of solar ink with printing press production speeds. At this point in time a 3 to 4% efficiency has been reported. This should improve shortly as a blend of new technologies might be able to be utilized.
Its a shame that on line worldwide research isn’t taking place to forward this technology to help negate the effects of global warming. A web site similar to the “big shot camera” which utilizes an 80 language teaching and discussion platform.
Rooftop solar in the form of “plug and play” type installations should follow the efficiency improvements. This should pump up the small business and residential economy as everyone can benefit from a $200-$400 extra dollars a month via eliminating their power bills.
Dan

Pretty interesting stuff. I would be really curious to know what type of efficiencies they are achieving?
John

When can I buy it and what is the wattage per square foot? Also, what is the longevity & life cycle like? The article doesn’t even say what it is made of.
Anumakonda Jagadeesh

Great innovation which will revolutionalise use of solar energy for power generation. Congratulations MIT Team.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore (AP),India
Wind Energy Expert
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
http://jonathansblog.co.uk jonathan

awesome this is what i like to see
soon i can have my macbook covered in these!
- Anonymous