MIThat team is as thin as paper, which can turn the surface of an object into a power source.
Image source: Physicist Organization Network
Engineers from the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a paper in the latest issue of the "Little Method" magazine that they have developed an ultra-light solar cell , which can quickly and easily turn any surface into a power supply. This solar cell, which is thinner than human hair, is attached to a piece of fabric and weighs only one percent of the traditional solar panel , but generates 18 times the power per kilogram. It can be integrated into sails, disaster relief tents and tarps, the wings of the drone and various building surfaces.
To produce solar cells, the MIT organic and nanostructured electronics laboratory team used nanomaterials in the form of electronic ink. In the nanoclean room, they used an extrusion coater to deposit a layer of nanoelectronic material onto a 3-micron thick substrate, and then used screen printing to print out the electrodes and complete the solar module, which was then peeled off the plastic substrate with a thickness of about 15 microns to form an ultralight solar device module.
But this slim and standalone solar module is difficult to handle and easily tear, making it difficult to deploy. To do this, the research team needed to find a lightweight, flexible substrate to adhere the solar cells to it, and eventually they found the composite "Dyneema" that weighs only 13 grams per square meter. By adding a layer of curing glue that is only a few microns thick, they adhered the solar module to the "Da Lima" and eventually formed an ultralight and solid solar structure.
test results show that independent solar cells can generate 730 watts of power per kilogram. If they are adhered to high-strength "Dalima" fabric, they generate about 370 watts of power per kilogram, which is 18 times that of traditional solar cells. Furthermore, even after the fabric solar cell is rolled up and expanded for more than 500 times, the initial power generation capacity is still maintained at more than 90%. This battery production method can be expanded to produce flexible batteries with a larger area. However, the researchers stressed that while their solar cells are lighter and more flexible than traditional batteries, the carbon-based organic material that makes the batteries interacts with moisture in the air and oxygen , which may reduce the performance of the battery, so it is necessary to wrap another material to protect the battery from the environment. They are currently developing ultra-thin packaging solutions.
(Reporter Liu Xia)
Source: Science and Technology Daily
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