Solar Power Wires Based on Organic Photovoltaic Materials

Abstract

Organic photovoltaics in a flexible wire format has potential advantages that are described in this paper. A wire format requires long-distance transport of current that can be achieved only with conventional metals, thus eliminating the use of transparent oxide semiconductors. A phase-separated, photovoltaic layer, comprising a conducting polymer and a fullerene derivative, is coated onto a thin metal wire. A second wire, coated with a silver film, serving as the counter electrode, is wrapped around the first wire. Both wires are encased in a transparent polymer cladding. Incident light is focused by the cladding onto to the photovoltaic layer even when it is completely shadowed by the counter electrode. Efficiency values of the wires range from 2.79% to 3.27%.

Fiber‐Type Solar Cells, Nanogenerators, Batteries, and Supercapacitors for Wearable Applications

“…Although the fiber‐shaped DSSCs could deliver efficiencies up to 8%,48 they are not ideal for wearable application, since they require additional packaging due to the presence of volatile electrolytes. Solid inorganic or organic FSSs overcome this disadvantage even though the efficiency is sacrificed to a certain extent 33, 60, 61. A major issue with solid fiber‐shaped photovoltaic cells is the balance between optimum transparency and conductivity of the top electrode.…”

Progress in Organic Photovoltaic Fibers Research

“…In recent years, there are several studies about photovoltaic fibers based on polycrystalline silicon (Kuraseko et al, 2006), dye sensitized solar cells (Fan et al, 2008;Ramier et al, 2008;Toivola et al, 2009) and organic solar cells (Bedeloglu et al, 2009(Bedeloglu et al, , 2010a(Bedeloglu et al, , 2010b(Bedeloglu et al, , 2010c(Bedeloglu et al, , 2011Curran et al, 2006;Curran et al, 2008;Curran et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2009;Liu et al, 2007a;Liu et al, 2007b;O'Connor et al, 2008;Zhou et al, 2009;. Protection of liquid electrolyte in DSSCs is problematic causing leakage and loss of performance.…”

Strategic Orientation to Solar Energy Productionand Long Term Financial Benefits

“…Incident light is focused by the cladding onto to the photovoltaic layer even when it is completely shadowed by the counter electrode. Efficiency values of the wires range from 2.79% to 3.27% [19].…”