A new solar cell only three microns thick can survive twisting, stretching, and submersion in water.
Resilience to all of these stresses is necessary for wearable devices, making the new solar cell a promising candidate as a power source for wearables, said study first author Sixing Xiong, a postdoctoral researcher in the Thin-Film Device Laboratory at RIKEN in Japan. 鈥淚f we want to realize the wearable power source, we need a power source that is lightweight and also ultraflexible,鈥� Xiong said. 鈥淎nd we need to overcome a very important problem 鈥� the waterproofness of wearable electronics.鈥�
Organic solar cells are small and light-powered, making them ideal for powering sensors or other devices embedded into clothes or bags. But they鈥檙e sensitive to moisture. Previous efforts to waterproof these flexible, light-gathering films have involved encapsulating them in polymer layers, but that sacrifices weight and flexibility, Xiong said.
Organic solar cells are made of a series of stacked layers, starting with an electron-blocking layer on top of a conductive metal oxide layer, then an electron donor and electron acceptor layer, and another electron-blocking layer, all overlain with a metal electrode. The researchers were working with molybdenum...
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