Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Solar Energy News .




SOLAR DAILY
Discovery could yield more efficient portable electronics, solar cells
by Staff Writers
Madison WI (SPX) Mar 25, 2015


Organic solar cells may prove less expensive to produce than the crystalline silicone photovoltaics commonly used now.

By figuring out how to precisely order the molecules that make up what scientists call organic glass - the materials at the heart of some electronic displays, light-emitting diodes and solar cells - a team of chemists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has set the stage for more efficient and sturdier portable electronic devices and possibly a new generation of solar cells based on organic materials.

Writing this week (March 23, 2015) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team led by UW-Madison chemistry Professor Mark Ediger describes a method capable of routinely imposing order on organic glasses by enabling their production so that the molecules that make up the glasses are ideally positioned.

"Glasses are usually isotropic, meaning their properties are the same from any direction," explains Ediger, a world expert on glass, who conducted the study with UW-Madison researchers Shakeel Dalal and Diane Walters.

Glass, says Ediger, can be made from any number of materials. The most familiar, of course, is window glass, made primarily of the mineral silica. But other types of glass can be made of metal and other materials, and nature makes its own variants such as the volcanic glass obsidian. Organic glasses are made using materials based on carbon instead of silica.

The new organic glasses devised by Ediger's team "have the molecules oriented in specific ways, standing up or lying down," he explains. The orientation affects performance and can confer greater levels of efficiency and durability in the devices they are used in.

While there is precedent for making organic glasses like those described in the new PNAS report, Ediger's team, working with Juan de Pablo and Ivan Lyubimov of the University of Chicago's Institute for Molecular Engineering, delved deep into the process and discovered the key for controlling molecular orientation during manufacture. The process can be exploited to easily and routinely make organic glasses whose molecules are better regimented, conferring enhanced properties of interest.

The discovery is important because organic glasses are widely used in what are called organic light-emitting diodes, the active elements of the displays used in some portable consumer electronics such as cellphones. Perhaps more significantly, the finding by Ediger's team could help advance improved photovoltaic devices, such as solar cells, which convert light to electricity.

"We're thinking about the next generation of photovoltaics," says Ediger, noting that the use of organic glasses in things like solar cells has so far been limited. "That technology is commercially immature and improved control over material properties could have a big impact."

Organic solar cells may prove less expensive to produce than the crystalline silicone photovoltaics commonly used now, he says.

In portable electronics, the work could help underpin new ways to build more durable screens. As many as 150 million such displays are manufactured for cellphones alone each year and the new discovery could result in displays that produce more light using as much as 30 percent less energy.

The key identified by Ediger and his colleagues lies in a process called physical vapor deposition, which is how the organic light-emitting diodes that make up portable electronic displays are mass produced. The process for making the diodes occurs in a vacuum chamber where molecules are heated and evaporated, and then condense in ultrathin layers on a substrate to form the light-emitting display of a cellphone or other device.

"What is new in our work is that we have systematically explored the important control variable, the substrate temperature, and discovered a general pattern for molecular orientation that can be exploited," says Ediger. "Furthermore, we now understand what controls the orientation trapped in particular glasses."

The upshot, he says, could be organic light-emitting diodes substantially more energy efficient than those currently in use.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
University of Wisconsin-Madison
All About Solar Energy at SolarDaily.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SOLAR DAILY
Spain's Iberdrola touts green footprint
Madrid (UPI) Mar 23, 2015
Spanish energy company Iberdrola said Monday more than half of its global facilities and nearly all of its Spanish operations were emissions-free last year. The company said it demonstrated its commitment to a clean-energy economy last year, with 57 percent of its global footprint and 91 percent of its Spanish operations emissions-free last year. "For a company like Iberdrola, th ... read more


SOLAR DAILY
Weltec Biopower Builds 500-kW Biogas Plant for Vegetable Producer

Chinese airline completes cooking oil fuel flight

Supercomputers help solve puzzle-like bond for biofuels

Scientists engineer faster-growing trees ideal for biofuel

SOLAR DAILY
Snake robots learn to turn by following the lead of real sidewinders

USAF funds sense-and-avoid technology development

Robotic materials: Changing with the world around them

Robotic SPACE Explorers Need Smarts to Survive

SOLAR DAILY
U.S. to fund bigger wind turbine blades

Gamesa and AREVA create the joint-venture Adwen

Time ripe for Atlantic wind, advocates say

Wind energy: TUV Rheinland supervises Senvion sale

SOLAR DAILY
Uber ramps up safety efforts after criticism

Pirelli boss attacks 'nationalist' China deal critics

Chinese takeover of Pirelli met with resignation in Italy

Hidden benefits of electric vehicles revealed

SOLAR DAILY
New technology converts packing peanuts to battery components

Superconductivity breakthroughs

You can't play checkers with charge ordering

Researchers increase energy density of lithium storage materials

SOLAR DAILY
NE China nuclear plant generator operational

Hungary reaches EU deal on nuclear fuel from Russia

Jordan agrees deal for Russia to build nuclear plant

Nearly all fuel inside Fukushima reactor melted: TEPCO

SOLAR DAILY
Energy company Eneco is heating homes with computer servers

Polish Power Exchange hosts 18th AFM Annual Conference

Reducing emissions with a more effective carbon capture method

China to further streamline energy layout amid "new normal"

SOLAR DAILY
Conifers' helicoptering seeds are result of long evolutionary experiment

Protected areas in Indonesia ineffective in preventing deforestation

Isolated tribe ventures out of threatened Peru forests

Post-fire logging can reduce fuels for up to 40 years




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.