Solar Cells with Inkjet Printing

admin September 8, 2020 Daily Current Affairs

Scientists have devised a new generation of thin, lightweight and flexible solar cells using inkjet printing.
The cells are scalable and can capture energy from light, thereby offer an alternative way to power novel electronic devices.
Unlike the ultrathin organic solar cells manufactured so far — which were made by depositing uniform thin films onto flat substrates via a process called spin-coating — the new cells have been printed using inkjet printing.
The process is low-cost and involves the use of an inkjet printer to lay down the semiconductor material and electrodes onto a solar cell substrate.
The previous ultrathin solar cells used indium tin oxide (ITO) as an electrode. ITO is highly conductive but a brittle and inflexible material.
Using lightweight, ultrathin organic solar cells to harvest energy from light, whether indoors or outdoors was a more feasible option in the face of using bulky batteries.
The intermolecular forces within the cartridge and the ink need to be overcome to eject very fine droplets from the very small nozzle.
The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the new solar cells was found to be 4.73 per cent, more than 4.1 per cent for a fully printed cell.