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http://www.osa-opn.org/home/newsroom/2016/mar...omponents/



New Ultrathin Solar Cells Are Light Enough to Sit on a Soap Bubble

Conventional silicon-based solar modules produce about 6.8 watts per lb. (15 watts per kilogram), but these new devices can generate more than 2,720 watts per lb. (6 watts per gram), or about 400 times as much .

The new cells use an organic compound known as DBP as their primary light-absorbing material. The solar cells are sandwiched between layers of parylene , a commercially available, flexible, transparent plastic that is widely used to protect circuit boards and implanted biomedical devices from environmental damage .

The researchers noted they could easily fabricate parylene films up to 80 microns thick using commercial equipment without losing the other benefits of their manufacturing technique.

It's not yet known when these solar cells might be commercially available, "but a general rule of thumb is that it takes a decade for a technology to go from research lab to market," Jean said. Some of the main challenges in scaling up this approach for commercial use might include developing an integrated system for high-throughput manufacturing — for example, roll-to-roll processing — increasing the deposition speed, and identifying applications where an ultralight and flexible cell would provide some unique value to the user."

http://www.livescience.com/54192-ultrathin-li...cells.html