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Flexible, optical fiber solar cell

An international team of engineers, physicists, and chemists have created the commencement cobweb-optic solar cell. These fibers are thinner than human hair, flexible, and nonetheless they produce electricity, just like a normal solar cell. The US military is already interested in weaving these threads into article of clothing, to provide a wearable power source for soldiers.

In essence, the inquiry team started with optical fibers made from drinking glass — and then, using high-pressure chemic vapor deposition, injected n-, i-, and p-blazon silicon into the fiber, turning it into a solar prison cell. Functionally, these silicon-doped fiber-optic threads are identical to conventional solar cells, generating electricity from the photovoltaic result. Whereas almost every solar prison cell on the market is crafted out of 2nd, planar amorphous silicon on a rigid/brittle glass substrate, though, these fiber-optic solar cells accept a 3D cross-department and retain the glass fiber's intrinsic flexibility.

Optical fiber solar cell, cross-section, showing the PIN silicon regionsThe lead researcher, John Badding of Penn State Academy, says the team has already produced "meters-long fiber," and that their new technique could be used to create "bendable silicon solar-cell fibers of over 10 meters in length." From there, it's simply a matter of weaving the thread into a fabric. Badding says that the military is "interested in designing article of clothing power sources for soldiers in the field," but unfortunately he falls curt of really demonstrating some woven fabric. As we can see in the motion picture above, the solar cell fiber certainly looks flexible — only we'll take to have Badding'due south give-and-take for it that it can plough correct angles, and withstand everyday garment stresses, without shattering.

Moving forrard, the potential for flexible, woven solar cells is enormous. On the nigh bones, immediate level, yous tin can imagine a baseball game cap or t-shirt that can recharge your smartphone. As we move towards bionic implants and other biomedical devices, though, there is a very pressing need to develop a clothing power source — and fiber-optic solar cells could certainly exist it.

These fibers also take two other intriguing properties that even so need to exist investigated. Due to their three-dimensional cross-department, they tin can absorb sunlight from any management — unlike their conventional, 2D siblings that lose much of their efficiency when the sun sinks below a sure angle. Further, according to Pier Sazio, another fellow member of the enquiry team, they used the aforementioned silicon injection method to embed photodetectors within the fiber. Sazio doesn't extrapolate on what this might lead to, merely it'south fun to speculate: A wearable computer with built-in solar charging and loftier-speed networking? Neat.

Now read: LG produces the get-go flexible cable-type lithium-ion battery, or Creating inexpensive solar panels with an ion cannon

Research paper: DOI: x.1002/adma.201203879 – "Silicon p-i-due north Junction Fibers"