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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @08:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-a-start dept.

Researchers at Tohoku University have developed an innovative method for fabricating semitransparent and flexible solar cells with atomically thin 2-D materials. The new technology improves power conversion efficiency of up to 0.7 percent, the highest value for solar cells made from transparent 2-D sheet materials.

Transparent or semi-transparent solar cells with excellent mechanical flexibility have attracted much attention as next-generation smart solar cells. They can be used on the surfaces of windows, front display panels of personal computers and cellphones, and human skin. But issues remain with regard to improving their power conversion efficiency, optical transparency, flexibility, stability and scalability.

Led by Associate Professor T. Kato, the team showed easy and scalable fabrication of semi-transparent and flexible solar cells using transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), an atomically thin 2-D material. Using a Schottky-type configuration, power conversion efficiency can be increased up to 0.7 percent, which is the highest value reported with few-layered TMDs. Clear power generation was also observed for a device fabricated on a large transparent and flexible substrate.

0.7 percent solar power conversion efficiency isn't much.

Toshiki Akama et al, Schottky solar cell using few-layered transition metal dichalcogenides toward large-scale fabrication of semitransparent and flexible power generator, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-12287-6


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:04PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:04PM (#573501)

    Sort of... moving to solar / electric would make it feasible to power all human activity by the Sun. No more carbon footprint aside from the actual materials. Mining / processing / manufacturing could all be done with solar.

    That is why you get flak for asking the question. Yes carbon footprint as a whole is important, but it is NOT a reason to prevent switching over since after the switch we will no longer need to consider the burning of gas/oil/coal as part of the process.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:03PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:03PM (#573555)

    If every unit you produce uses more carbon than it will replace, then you're better off not switching.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:17AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:17AM (#573678)

      If you don't switch, you'll use all that carbon anyway.

      • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday September 28 2017, @03:02AM

        by urza9814 (3954) on Thursday September 28 2017, @03:02AM (#574186) Journal

        If the device isn't sufficiently efficient you won't be able to switch (using that device alone) at all, and you'll just waste extra carbon producing a dead-end.