Monday, July 11, 2011

MIT's Gleason demos printing solar cells on paper

By Rodney H. Brown

Well-known MIT researcher Karen Gleason demonstrated in a recent paper the technology to print a solar cell onto a piece of paper, yielding a thin, lightweight power-generating sheet that can be folded and unfolded just like any other paper.

According to a release send out by the MIT press office, Gleason, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser professor of chemical engineering, along with professor of electrical engineering Vladimir Bulović, graduate student Miles Barr and six other students and postdocs, authored an article in the journal Advanced Materials. They demonstrate how by using a vapor deposition technique in a vacuum, they can avoid the need for high temperatures or harsh chemicals used in current solar cell furnaces that would destroy the flimsy paper substrate.

The article touts the industrial potential of the technique, stating: “The basic process is essentially the same as the one used to make the silvery lining in your bag of potato chips: a vapor-deposition process that can be carried out inexpensively on a vast commercial scale.” The resulting cell is sturdy, researchers claim – on a version printed on a thin piece of plastic they describe folding and unfolding it 1,000 times with no loss to its ability to generate electricity.

Gleason and her team have been working on this concept for at least six years – she received funding in one of the early rounds of grants issued by the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT in 2005, and has taken follow-on grants in 2008 and 2009.