New silicon solar cells are light as carpets

Recently, scientists led by John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered a new and efficient way to make silicon solar cells. The silicon solar cells made in this way are very flexible and ductile, they can be rolled on pencils, and they can even be used as colorants in building windows and automotive glass.

A report published in the online journal Nature Materials states that a new method can be used to process traditional silicon wafers, that is, to cut thin, brittle, and brittle silicon wafers into ultra-thin and ultra-thin micro Wafers are then carefully transferred to another flexible surface of the material.

Rogers, the leader of the new study, said: "We can make wafers ultra-thin and thin, and can be arbitrarily curled on plastic. It can also be made into a thin film or film and incorporated into architectural glass. This is a building. The use of solar energy as a platform to open up space."

Due to the high global oil prices and people’s concerns about global warming, the demand for solar cells has greatly increased.

Many companies in the world, such as Sharp Corp, a Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer, and Q-Cells, a German photovoltaic giant, have produced thin-film solar cells. However, such thin-film solar cells convert solar energy into electricity. The efficiency is generally inferior to traditional solar cells.

Rogers said that their technology uses traditional single-crystal silicon. They are "robust and durable, but they are currently too rigid and therefore vulnerable." Rogers used an etching method to process the silicon. Scrape small pieces on the surface of a large piece of silicon. These pieces of silicon are 10 to 100 times thinner than thin pieces of silicon, and because of their small size, they are easier to use.

After scraping the silicon chips, the pieces were picked up with a device equivalent to a "rubber stamp" and then "printed" onto the surface of other materials.

Rogers said: "The scraped silicon chips are like ink. After scraping the silicon chips, the large thin silicon surface becomes an 'inking pad'. Just use the 'stamp' to 'print' the silicon chips in the pad. To the surface of other objects."

He said that the last step is to use electronic equipment to export the electricity from the solar cells.

The increased flexibility of silicon wafers makes silicon solar cells lighter and easier to carry. Rogers took advantage of future silicon solar cells and "would roll up into a truck like a carpet."

He said that Semprius, a recently established company in Durham, North Carolina, is negotiating to register the technology.

Rogers said: "We just used something we already know in a different way."

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