Industry | Progress in research on solar coatings that can generate electricity with just one application

The manufacturing process of solar panels is complicated.
After furnace drawing and chip slicing, acid solution and high temperature are used to produce dark blue solar cells.
However, as the organic solar technology becomes more mature, it may only be necessary to coat a layer of solar cells in the future.
"Paint" can make any item generate electricity.
Solar prices have fallen by as much as 99% in the past 40 years, but new solar coatings are expected to change the market again.
Wai-Lun Chan, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas in the United States, said that if solar coatings are successfully developed, there will be no need to use expensive equipment to manufacture solar cells, further reducing the cost of solar technology.
In the past, many teams have also started to study solar cell coatings.
For example, Buffalo University in the United States and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia launched related results in 2017, but they all gave up because the battery is difficult to absorb light.
Australian researchers even called solar coatings.
Products that are unlikely to be on the market within 5 years.
So how to break through the dilemma? Generally, crystalline silicon solar energy is a multi-layer structure consisting of upper and lower electrodes and P-type and N-type semiconductors.
When the semiconductor absorbs sunlight, the PN junction will produce electron-hole pairs (electron-hole pairs).
, The positively charged holes and the negatively charged electrons move to the P-type semiconductor and the N-type semiconductor, respectively, and then generate current and voltage.
In organic solar design, the active layer is a uniform mixture of two organic materials, an electron donor and an electron acceptor.
The electrodes and semiconductors will also dissolve into a liquid state, and they need to be layered before wiring.
In addition to power generation, the electrons inside the organic materials will not move, so many electrons lack the "holes" of their counterparts.
According to the latest research by the University of Kansas team, they found that the atomic layer of the 2D semiconductor molybdenum disulfide can generate multiple free electrons (Free Electrons).
These electrons will not be affected by the lack of holes, and can undergo directional movement under the action of an external electric field, thereby producing Current.
According to the research published by the team in the Journal of American Chemical Society, solar cells that can be manufactured by printing or even turned into special coatings have been developed.
In addition, the materials are not only cheap, but also easy to manufacture.
Chan pointed out that in the future, scientists may be able to use this concept to create solar technology that can be used to draw pictures.
However, there is still much room for improvement in organic solar coatings.
At present, the team has not announced the conversion efficiency or related prototypes.
The highest conversion efficiency of other laboratories is only 15%, and there are problems such as durability and stability.
The organic solar energy, which originally had the advantages of lightness, thinness, low cost, easy recycling, and flexibility, will add new combat power.