Tag Archives: Canek Fuentes-Hernandez

Solar cells made even more leaflike with inclusion of nanocellulose fibers

Researchers at the US Georgia  Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)  and Purdue University (Indiana) have used cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), which is also known as nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), to create solar cells that have greater efficiency and can be recycled. From the Mar. 26, 2013 news item on Nanowerk,

Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells using natural substrates derived from plants such as trees. Just as importantly, by fabricating them on cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) substrates, the solar cells can be quickly recycled in water at the end of their lifecycle.

The Georgia Tech Mar. 25, 2013 news release, which originated the news item,

The researchers report that the organic solar cells reach a power conversion efficiency of 2.7 percent, an unprecedented figure for cells on substrates derived from renewable raw materials. The CNC substrates on which the solar cells are fabricated are optically transparent, enabling light to pass through them before being absorbed by a very thin layer of an organic semiconductor. During the recycling process, the solar cells are simply immersed in water at room temperature. Within only minutes, the CNC substrate dissolves and the solar cell can be separated easily into its major components.

Georgia Tech College of Engineering Professor Bernard Kippelen led the study and says his team’s project opens the door for a truly recyclable, sustainable and renewable solar cell technology.

“The development and performance of organic substrates in solar technology continues to improve, providing engineers with a good indication of future applications,” said Kippelen, who is also the director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE). “But organic solar cells must be recyclable. Otherwise we are simply solving one problem, less dependence on fossil fuels, while creating another, a technology that produces energy from renewable sources but is not disposable at the end of its lifecycle.”

To date, organic solar cells have been typically fabricated on glass or plastic. Neither is easily recyclable, and petroleum-based substrates are not very eco-friendly. For instance, if cells fabricated on glass were to break during manufacturing or installation, the useless materials would be difficult to dispose of. Paper substrates are better for the environment, but have shown limited performance because of high surface roughness or porosity. However, cellulose nanomaterials made from wood are green, renewable and sustainable. The substrates have a low surface roughness of only about two nanometers.

“Our next steps will be to work toward improving the power conversion efficiency over 10 percent, levels similar to solar cells fabricated on glass or petroleum-based substrates,” said Kippelen. The group plans to achieve this by optimizing the optical properties of the solar cell’s electrode.

The news release also notes the impact that using cellulose nanomaterials could have economically,

There’s also another positive impact of using natural products to create cellulose nanomaterials. The nation’s forest product industry projects that tens of millions of tons of them could be produced once large-scale production begins, potentially in the next five years.

One might almost  suspect that the forest products industry is experiencing financial difficulty.

The researchers’ paper was published by Scientific Reports, an open access journal from the Nature Publishing Group,

Recyclable organic solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal substrates by Yinhua Zhou, Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, Talha M. Khan, Jen-Chieh Liu, James Hsu, Jae Won Shim, Amir Dindar, Jeffrey P. Youngblood, Robert J. Moon, & Bernard Kippelen. Scientific Reports  3, Article number: 1536  doi:10.1038/srep01536 Published 25 March 2013

In closing, the news release notes that a provisional patent has been filed at the US Patent Office.And one final note, I have previously commented on how confusing the reported power conversion rates are. You’ll find a recent comment in my Mar. 8, 2013 posting about Ted Sargent’s work with colloidal quantum dots and solar cells.