Could Plastic Help Produce Cheaper Solar Power?

Oct. 11, 2005 — -- With record-high prices of petroleum and natural gas and growing demand for electricity, the interest in alternative and renewable energy sources -- such as wind and solar power -- is once again bubbling to the surface.

But "green" energy has its difficulties, too. Equipping a home or building with solar panels is still three to four times more expensive than using existing fossil fuel systems, partly because the photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight to electrical energy use layers of expensive silicon materials.

In hopes of making solar energy more useful and affordable, several scientists have been working on creating organic photovoltaic cells that replace the usual silicon with readily available materials such as carbon or plastic.

If they succeed, designers could one day integrate solar cells into everyday gadgets like iPods and cellphones. Even the energy absorbed by window tinting could be used to power a laptop, for example.

One team of researchers at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California in Los Angeles claims to have made strides toward making photovoltaic solar cells that are both cheap and efficient.

The research team -- UCLA engineering professor Yang Yang, post-doctoral researcher Gang Li and graduate student Vishal Shrotriya -- says it has developed an organic photovoltaic cell that uses a polymer, or plastic, material in a unique way.

Like other organic solar cells, the plastic material in their prototype cell looks to materials other than silicon. The polymer material -- composed of common chemicals used to create other plastic materials -- is sandwiched between conductive electrodes. Photons in the sunlight "knock" electrons from the polymer onto one of the electrodes. This causes an electrical imbalance where one electrode becomes positively charged while the other is negatively charged, creating an electrical current or power.

While the polymer material is not new, Yang says, "We've invented a way to grow the film using a slow-growth method."