Physicists at the University of Oxford, UK, created photovoltaic solar panels so thin, flexible, and efficient that they can be printed onto the surface of objects such as bags, cell phones, and cars. With a thickness of just one micrometer (0.001 millimeter), the solar cells were produced using a method developed at the British institution and are 150 times thinner than currently available commercial products. They are made of perovskite, a material that has been studied as an alternative to the silicon currently used in most panels. The new ultra-thin, malleable cells are capable of converting 27% of solar energy into electricity, a similar performance to the best silicon panels. The conversion rate was independently certified by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). “By using new materials which can be applied as a coating, we’ve shown we can replicate and outperform silicon whilst also gaining flexibility,” physicist Junke Wang, a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford and one of the researchers behind the study, said in a press release. By the end of the year, the scientists hope to publish a scientific paper detailing the development process of the flexible cells (University of Oxford, August 13).
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