New type of 'washable' solar cell

By -
Scientists have developed a new type of water-proof solar cell which can provide electricity even after being soaked in water or stretched and compressed.
The finding could open the way for wearable solar cells, which will provide power to devices such as health monitors incorporated into clothing, researchers said.


These could include sensors that record heartbeats and body temperature, for example, providing early warning of medical problems, they said.
Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo in Japan, developed extremely thin and flexible organic photovoltaic cells, coated on both sides with stretchable and waterproof films, based on a material called PNTz4T.
They deposited the device in an inverse architecture onto a one-micrometre-thick parylene film.
The ultra-thin device was then placed onto acrylic-based elastomer and the top side of the device was coated with an identical elastomer, giving it a coating on both sides to prevent water infiltration.

The elastomer, while allowing light to enter, prevented water and air from leaking into the cells, making them more long-lasting than previous experiments.
The researchers then subjected the device to a variety of tests, finding first that it has strong energy efficiency.
To test its resistance to water, they soaked it in water for two hours, and found that the efficiency decreased by just 5.4 per cent.
To test the durability of the solar cell, they subjected it to compression, and found that after compressing by nearly half for twenty cycles while placing drops of water on it, it still had 80 per cent of the original efficiency.
"We were very gratified to find that our device has great environmental stability while simultaneously having a good efficiency and mechanical robustness," researchers said.
"We very much hope that these washable, lightweight and stretchable organic photo-voltaics will open a new avenue for use as a long-term power source system for wearable sensors and other devices," they added.
The study was published in the Journal Nature Energy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'EA Sports UFC 2' update 6 adds 4 new fighters; brings changes to roster, gameplay and menu

By -
Image
Four new fighters have been added as part of the content update #6 to "EA Sports UFC 2."Twitter/EASPORTSUFC Publisher EA announced content update #6 (patch 1.09) for "EA Sports UFC 2" mixed martial arts fighting video game that brings changes in roster, gameplay and menu. It also adds four new fighters to the game. The four new fighters: Abel Trujillo (Men's Lightweight), Evan Dunham (Men's Lightweight), Rashid Magomedov (Men's Lightweight) and Sean O'Connell (Men's Light Heavyweight) were added as part of the new update. The roster update brings U.S. professional MMA fighter Donald Cerrone to "EA Sports UFC 2." Cerrone is a former professional kickboxer. The content update also brings changes to gameplay and menu: Gameplay updates Added the ability to end a round "The Holloway" when you taunt with Max Holloway in the last 20 seconds of the round and your opponent taunts back. Added Grapple Advantage Meter wh...
Read more

re-writeable paper ?

By -
Image
  Heard of re-writeable CD or drives , ever heard of re-writeable paper ?                            Printing has come a long way since the computer landed on the desktop. First,there were daisy-wheel printers, then dot-matrix printers, then inkjet and laser printers . The problem with all of these output devices, of course, is that they require paper -- lots of it -- and expensive consumables, like toner. Why can't someone invent an inkless, tonerless printer that allows the operator to reuse paper? As it turns out, this isn't a new idea. Xerox has been working with so-called electronic paper since the 1970s. Its most promising solution is a type of paper called "Gyricon." A Gyricon sheet is a thin layer of transparent plastic containing millions of small oil-filled cavities. A two-colored bead is free to rotate inside each cavity. When a printer applies a voltage to the surface of the she...
Read more

5 smartphones that have the best battery life

By -
Image
As they say, life with a smartphone is like having a second brain in your pocket. However, there are times when this second brain goes dead because of something as trivial as your phone running out of battery.  With most buyers focusing on phones with bigger displays and faster and more power-hungry processors, the humble battery pack that actually brings all the magic to life is often forgotten. But having said that, a big battery on a low spec, or worse a badly designed phone is also of no use. So here's our list of phones that not just offer great battery life but also come with best specs (well, almost).   Moto E4 Plus Kicking things off is the recently launched Moto E4 Plus which brings with it a massive 5000 mAh battery pack, a 5.5-inch 720p display, a fingerprint sensor running on Android 7.1.1. It's also equipped with a capable MediaTek MT 6737 quad-core processor clocking at 1.3GHz paired with 3GB RAM. There's also 32GB of inbuilt storage...
Read more