Dec 01 - Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

U.S. researchers have taken one step closer to creating high-efficiency solar cells using cheap plastic with a dash of silicon, it was announced on Saturday.

The solar cells, being developed by researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), have significantly greater sunlight absorption and conversation than previous polymers, the university said in a press release on its website.

The researchers want these easy-to-use plastic solar energy cells to be sold at local hardware stores, and then hung like posters on the wall, said the release.

"We hope that solar cells will one day be as thin as paper and be attached to the surface of your choice," said co-author Hsiang-Yu Chen, a UCLA graduate student in engineering. "We'll also be able to create different colors to match different applications."

The research team found that substituting a silicon atom for carbon atom in the backbone of the plastic markedly improved the material's photovoltaic properties, said the release.

The new polymer solar cells use organic compounds to produce electricity from sunlight, are much easier to produce than traditional silicon-based solar cells and are also environmentally friendly, the release said.

"Previously, the synthesizing process for the polymer was very complicated. We've been able to simplify the process and make it much easier to mass produce," said Jianhui Hou, UCLA postdoctoral researcher and co-author of the study.

"Though this is a milestone achievement, we will continue to work on improving the materials," he said.

"Ideally, we'd like to push the performance of the solar cell to higher than 10 percent efficiency. We know the potential is there," he added.

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