Now the study headed by an international panel led by the National Institute of Technology and Standards (NIST) shows that the ‘sweet spot’ for group-producing polymer solar cells – a tantalizing opportunity for years – may be much bigger than dictated by the traditional wisdom. In studies utilizing a mock-up of a big-volume, roll-to-roll processing technique, the scientists generated polymer-based solar cells with a ‘conversion efficiency’ of more than 9.5 percent.
It is equally good as the small-batches structured in the lab with twisted – coating, a technique that uses high-quality films in the lab but is commercially not feasible since it wastes around 90 percent of the starting link.

Figure 1: Solar park based on solar polymer cells
The fact surprising to the experts was their bulk-produced versions showcased molecular packing and texture that just closely resembles that of lab-structured varieties, which at their finest transformed about 11 percent of incident sunlight into the electrical energy.
“The key rule followed is that big-volume polymer solar cells must just appear like those structured in the lab in terms of organization, shape, and structure at the nanometre scale,” says Lee Richter, a physicist at the NIST who performs on functional polymers. “Our studies reveal that the needs are much more varying than assumed, enabling for better structural variability without huge sacrificing conversion potential.”
“Effective roll-to- roll construction is the central goal towards the high-volume and low-cost production that would allow photo-voltaics to scale to a huge fraction of bigger energy production,” says He Yan, an associate from Hong Kong University of Technology and Science.
The group researched with a layering material made of a fluorinated polymer and a fullerene, also called as a ‘buckyball.' It is an attractive polymer for listed production, accomplishing a reported power conversion efficacy of more than 11 percent. The important thing is that it can be applied in deliberately thick layers – conducive to roll-to- roll processing. A group of X-ray based estimations disclosed that the temperature at which the layering material was placed and dried drastically influenced the structure of the resultant coating’s material, specifically the spacing, orientation and disbursement of the crystals that formed.
Conclusion – “Real-time estimations were crucial to introducing a better comprehension of the film formation kinetics and eventual optimization,” says Aram Amassian, an associate from the Saudi Arabia’s head Abdullan University of Technology and Science. “It is concisely that form of processing technique employed to influence the shape of the domains and their size distribution in the final layering, but such distinctly different morphologies do not primarily undermine performance,” says Harald Ade, an associate from North Carolina State University. “We consider such findings vital clues for crafting polymer solar cells optimized for roll-to- roll processing.”
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