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May 3rd, 2010
Is Organic PV the Future of Solar?
Abstract:
When Dr. Alan Heeger and his colleagues began experimenting with newly-found semiconducting polymers in the 1970s, they just wanted to understand the basic physics of how electrons were set free in the materials. But they ended up making a discovery that has helped advance a new generation of solar plastics and inks.
By oxidizing polyacetylene, a long-chain molecule which acts like a pigment, the researchers found the polymer to have extraordinarily high conductive properties.
"We realized it in a classic 'ah ha moment,'" says Heeger. "But then over and over again, we saw additional properties that we had not foreseen."
Eventually, Heeger and his colleagues, Alan MacDiarmind and Hideki Shirakawa, figured out that the material was not just a novelty. It had the potential to change the way we manufacture electronic devices, transistors, diodes and solar cells. These semiconducting polymers could be put in a solution and printed on a substrate - potentially creating a revolution in electronics that rivals what Gutenberg's printing press did for books 600 years earlier.
Source:
renewableenergyworld.com
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