LIST OF FIGURES

FIG 1 WORKING OF CONVENTIONAL SOLAR CELL 3

FIG.2 INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELL 5

FIG.3 BASIC STRUCTURE OF PLASTIC SOLAR CELL 7

FIG.4 SCHEMATIC DEVICE STRUCTURE FOR

POLYMER 8

FIG.5 ELECTRONIC ENERGY LEVEL OF P3HT AND

PC60BM 12

FIG. 6 (A) SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS OF THE DEVICE

STRUCTURE OF THE BULK HETEROJUNCTION

SOLAR CELL 16

FIG. 6 (B) SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS OF THE SCREEN-

PRINTING TECHNIQUE 16

FIG. 7 PLOT OF THE CURRENT DENSITY 16

FIG 8 (A) BAND DIAGRAM OF A DONOR–ACCEPTOR

COMBINATION 20

FIG 9 A CARTOON OF AN ORGANIC PHOTOVOL-

TAIC DEVICE 21

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 1. INTRODUCTION
Nanotechnology is the engineering of tiny machines - the projected ability to
build things from the bottom up using techniques and tools being developed today
to make complete, highly advanced products. It includes anything smaller than
100 nanometers with novel properties. As the pool of available resources is being
exhausted, the demand for resources that are everlasting and ecofriendly is
increasing day by day. One such form is the solar energy. The advent of solar
energy just about solved all the problems. As such solar energy is very useful.
But the conventional solar cells mainly due to the construction process and also
the materials used in it have a limited number of applications. Latest inventions
have opened doors to whole lot of applications that is creeping in to use the solar
panels that have been developed out of plastic. In the sector of harnessing
renewable form of energy, silicon as an element failed to make a mark in the wide
range of applications of solar panels. The use of nanotechnology in the solar cells
created an opportunity to overcome this problem, thereby increasing the
efficiency. This paper deals with an offshoot in the advancement of
nanotechnology, its implementation in solar cells and its advantage over the
conventional commercial solar cell.

In order to the miniaturization of integrated circuits well into the present

century, it is likely that present day, nano-scale or nano electronic device
designs will be replaced with new designs for devices that take advantage of the
quantum mechanical effects that dominate on the much smaller, nanometer
scale . Nanotechnology is often referred to as general purpose technology. That
is because in its mature form it will have significant impact on almost all
industries and all areas of society. It offers better built, longer lasting, cleaner,
safer and smarter products for the home, for ammunition, for medicine and for
industries for ages. These properties of nanotechnology have been made use of
in solar cells.

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 2. WORKING OF CONVENTIONAL SOLAR CELL

Basically conventional type solar cells Photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of
special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently the
most commonly used. Basically, when light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it
is absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the
absorbed light is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons
loose, allowing them to flow freely. PV cells also all have one or more electric
fields that act to force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain
direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by placing metal contacts on the
top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off to use externally.

For example, the current can power a calculator. This current, together with
the cell's voltage (which is a result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines
the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can produce.

Fig 1: Working Of Conventional Solar Cell

Conventional semiconductor solar cells are made by polycrystalline silicon

or in the case of highest efficiency ones crystalline gallium arsenide.
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But by this type of solar cell, it is observed that, only 35% of the suns total energy
falling on it could be judiciously used. Also, this is not so favorable on cloudy
days, thus creating a problem. This major drawback led to the thought of
development of a new type of solar cell embedded with nanotechnology. The
process involved in this is almost the same as explained earlier. But the basic
difference lies in the absorption of the wavelength of light from the sun.

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 3. INFRARED PLASTIC SOLAR CELL

Ever since the discovery (in 1977) of conducting plastic (polymer which
feature conjugate double bonds, that enable electrons to move through them), for
which prof. Alan heeger was awarded a noble prize, there has been interest in
using these materials in fabrication of solar cells. Scientists have invented a
plastic solar cell that can turn the suns power into electric energy even on a cloudy
day. Plastic solar cells are not new. But existing materials are only able to harness
the sun’s visible light. While half of the sun’s power lies in the visible spectrum,
the other half lies in the infrared spectrum. The new material is first plastic
compound that is able to harness infrared portion. The plastic material uses
nanotechnology and contains the 1stgeneration solar cells that can harness the
sun’s invisible infrared rays. This breakthrough made us to believe that plastic
solar cells could one day become more efficient than the current solar cell.

Fig 2: infrared plastic solar cell

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 The researchers combined specially designed nano particles called
quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the
infrared. With further advances the new plastic solar cell could allow up to 30%
of sun’s radiant energy to be harnessed completely when compared to only 6%
in today plastic best plastic solar cells. A large amount of sun’s energy could be
harnessed through solar farms and used to power all our energy needs. This
could potentially displace other source of electrical production that produce
greenhouse gases like coal. Solar energy reaching theearth is 10000 times than
what we consume.

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 4. MORPHOLOGY AND DESIGN

Fig 3: basic structure of plastic solar cell

The plastic solar cell created by the Berkeley research group is actually a
hybrid, comprised of tiny nanorods dispersed in an organic polymer or plastic.
Figure 2 shows the hybrid plastic solar cells has nanorod/polymer layer
sandwiched between two electrodes. The active layer, a mere 200 nanometer
thick, is a jumble of nanorods embedded in a semiconducting polymer. Vacuum
evaporation and solution processing techniques are the most commonly used thin
film preparation methods in the production of plastic solar cells. Polymers
decompose under excessive heat and have too large molar mass for evaporation.
Therefore, most polymer-based photovoltaic elements are solution processed at
low temperatures. The printing/coating techniques are used to deposit conjugated
semiconducting polymers.

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 Donor-acceptor blends can be prepared by dissolving donor and acceptor
components in a common solvent (or solvent mixture) this is called solution
processing and Solution processing requires soluble polymers. Blends are
deposited by using one of the techniques mentioned above. Sometimes, a soluble
monomer is cast as a thin film using a post deposition polymerization reaction
afterward. Soluble precursor polymers can also be converted into the final
semiconducting form with a post deposition conversion reaction. The advantage
of this latter method is that the resulting conjugated polymer thin films are
insoluble.

For plastic solar cells, spin-coating, doctor blading, as well as

screenprinting methods were applied. Such large scale printing/coating
techniques open up the possibility for an up scaling of the production with low-
energy consumption.

Fig 4: Schematic device structure for polymer/fullerene bulk hetero junction

solar cells. The active layer is sandwiched between two contacts: an indium-
tin oxide electrode coated with a hole transport layer PEDOT: PSS and an
aluminum top electrode.

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 The plastic solar cells are fabricated in sandwich geometry. As substrates,
transparent, conducting electrodes (for example, glass or plastic covered with
ITO) are used. ITO (indium tin oxide) electrodes are transparent and conductive
but expensive. Alternatives for ITO are searched for, and nanotube network
electrodes potentially work as well. The substrate electrode can be structured by
Chemical etching. On the transparent conducting substrate, PEDOT: PSS, poly
(ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonic acid, is coated from
an aqueous solution. This PEDOT: PSS layer improves the surface quality of the
ITO electrode as well as facilitates the hole injection/extraction. Furthermore, the
work function of this electrode can be changed by chemical/ electrochemical
redox reactions of the PEDOT layer.

The active layers are coated using solution or vacuum deposition

techniques as mentioned above. The nanorods which are derived from
1(3methoxycarbonyl) propyl-1-phenyl-[6, 6]-methanofullerene (PCBM) are
mixed with a plastic semiconductor called (P3HT) p3ht-poly-(3-hexylthiophene)
a transparent electrode is coated with the mixture. An aluminum coating acting
as The back electrode completed the device. The nanorods act like wires. When
they absorb light of a specific wavelength, they generate an electron plus an
electron hole-a vacancy in the crystal that moves around just like an electron. The
electron travels the length of the rod until it is collected by aluminum electrode.
The hole is transferred to the plastic, which is known as a hole-carrier, and
conveyed to the electrode, creating a current.

The active layers are coated using solution or vacuum deposition

techniques as mentioned above. The nanorods which are derived from
1(3methoxycarbonyl) propyl-1-phenyl-[6, 6] - methanofullerene (PCBM) are
mixed with a plastic semiconductor called (P3HT) p3ht-poly-(3-hexylthiophene)
a transparent electrode is coated with the mixture. An aluminum coating acting

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as the back electrode completed the device. The nanorods act like wires. When
they absorb light of a specific wavelength, they generate an electron plus an
electron hole-a vacancy in the crystal that moves around just like an electron. The
electron travels the length of the rod until it is collected by aluminum electrode.
The hole is transferred to the plastic, which is known as a hole-carrier, and
conveyed to the electrode, creating a current.

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 5. WORKING OF PLASTIC SOLAR CELL

The solar cell created is actually a hybrid, comprised of tiny nanorods

dispersed in an organic polymer or plastic. A layer only 200 nanometers thick is
sandwiched between electrodes and can produce at present about 0.7 volts. The
electrode layers and nanorods/polymer layers could be applied in separate coats,
making production fairly easy. And unlike today's semiconductor-based
photovoltaic devices, plastic solar cells can be manufactured in solution in a
beaker without the need for clean rooms or vacuum chambers.

Plastic solar cell (PSC) structure is the most successful structure invented,
in which a blend of donor and acceptor with a bicontinual phase separation can
be formed. When the sunlight getting through the transparent electrode is
absorbed by the semiconducting donor and acceptor materials in the photoactive
layer, excitons (bounded electron–hole pairs) are formed, and then the excitons
diffuse to the interfaces of the donor/acceptor where the excitons dissociate into
electrons on the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level of the acceptor and
holes on the highest occupied molecular orbital level of the donor. The
dissociated electrons and holes are driven by build-in electric field and then
moved to negative and positive electrode, respectively, and then collected by the
electrodes to realize the photon-to-electron conversion. Figure 4 shows the
electronic energy levels of the donor and acceptor in a P3HT/PCBM blend
system.

The absorption band of P3HT/PCBM covers the range from 380 to 670
nm, which means that the photons with energy between 2.0eV and 3.3 eV can be
absorbed by the active layer, and the excitons will be formed. In order to make
better utilization of the sunlight, active layer materials

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With broad absorption band is required, and for this purpose, more and more low
band gap (LBG) materials have been developed and great successes have been
made in the past decade.

Fig. 5: Electronic energy level of P3HT and PC60BM

Since, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and the highest occupied
molecular orbital level of P3HT is higher than that of PCBM, the excitons will
separate into positive and negative charges at the interface of the P3HT phase and
PCBM phase. The negative charge will transport through the lowest unoccupied
molecular orbital of PCBM and the positive charge will transport through the
highest occupied molecular orbital level of P3HT, and then the charges can be
collected by the electrodes. In order to get efficient charge separation, highest
occupied molecular orbital level and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the
donor material should be 0.2–0.3 eV higher than that of the acceptor material,
respectively. If the offset is too small, it would be hard to get efficient charge
separation; if the offset is too big, much energy loss would be happened. As
known, open-circuit voltage (Voc) of BHJ OPV devices are directly proportional
to the gap between highest occupied molecular orbital level of the donor and
lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the acceptor. Although, the energy of the
photon that can be utilized by the P3HT/PCBM system is higher than 2.0 eV, Voc
of P3HT/PCBM based OPV device is typically around 0.6 eV, meaning that more
than 70 % energy loss is taking place during the photoelectric conversion process.

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Therefore, to minimize the energy loss, highest occupied molecular orbital level
and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital levels of the donors and the acceptors
should be tuned carefully.

5.1 IMPROVEMENTS

Some of the obvious improvements include better light collection and

concentration, which already are employed in commercial solar cells. Significant
improvements can be made in the plastic, nanorods mix, too, ideally packing the
nanorods closer together, perpendicular to the electrodes, using minimal polymer,
or even none-the nanorods would transfer their electrons more directly to the
electrode. In their first-generation solar cells, the nanorods are jumbled up in the
polymer, leading to losses of current via electron-hole recombination and thus
lower efficiency.

They also hope to tune the nanorods to absorb different colors to span the
spectrum of sunlight. An eventual solar cell has three layers each made of
nanorods that absorb at different wavelength.

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 6. PLASTIC SOLAR CELL - SCREEN-PRINTING
TECHNOLOGY

Screen-printing is a commonly used industrial technique for fast,

inexpensive deposition of dye films over large areas. From this standpoint, it is
an ideal technology for large-scale fabrication of polymer-based solar cells. In
addition, screen-printing allows patterning to easily define which areas of the
substrate receive deposition. This is important, for instance, for fabricating a
photovoltaic device that is integrated onto a substrate containing other electronic
devices. Also, in the production of a large area energy collection system, it is
necessary to fabricate many individual solar cells that are wired together. Using
screen printing, individual's devices can easily be defined on the same substrate
in order to optimize the power generation of the entire system. In industrial
processes, films fabricated with screen printing usually have a thickness greater
than 0.5 mm. The use of screen-printing to fabricate a polymer layer with a
thickness less than 100 nm, serving as the whole transport layer in an organic
light-emitting diode has been recently demonstrated. However, in this case, the
printed films were not smooth and the screen footprint was visible to the naked
eye. Here, we use screen printing to deposit an ultra thin and smooth active layer
in a bulk heterojunction photovoltaic device, consisting of a conjugated
polymer/fullerene blend, with a thickness of 40 nm and root-mean-square (rms)
surface roughness of 2.6 nm.

This device yields a power conversion efficiency of 4.3% when illuminated

by monochromatic light with a wavelength of 488 nm.

The structure of the bulk-heterojunction solar cell is shown in Fig. 5(a).

The principles of operation of this device are described elsewherel , A 150 nm
thick film of poly- (ethylene dioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulphonic
acid [(PEDOT: PSS), Bayer AG] was first spin cast from a water solution onto

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an indium tin oxide (ITO)/gIass substrate, where the ITO has a thickness of 120
nm (about 40 V/square) and 85%-90% transmission in the visible range. The
PEDOT: PSS layer was then dried in vacuum for 3 h at 1 40 0 C. The active layer,
consisting of a blend of the conjugated polymer [poly (2-methoxy-5-(3,
7dimethyIoctyIoxy) - 1 , 4-phenylene vinylene)] (MDMO-PPV) and the
methanofullerene ([6, 6]-phenyI C61-butyric acid methyl ester) (1 by Weight
(PCBM) was then deposited onto the PEDOT: PSS layer from a chlorobenzene
solution using the screen printing technique. The average thickness of the active
layer was 40 nm. A description of the screen printing process, depicted in Fig.
5(b) follows. During deposition, the screen is placed a few millimeters above the
surface of the substrate. Upon loading the polymer solution onto the screen, a
rubber "squeegee" is then swept with a velocity of several centimeters per second
across the surface of the screen, momentarily contacting it to the substrate. At this
point, solution flows from the screen to the surface of the substrate. As the
squeegee then passes over a region, the screen separates from the substrate,
leaving behind solution that dries to yield a continuous film. For this study, a
screen with a thread diameter of 30 mm and a mesh count of 1 81/cm was used.
For the cathode, a 130 nm thick film of aluminum was thermally deposited onto
the active layer through a shadow mask to define an active device area of 0.12
cm2. The aluminum was deposited in a high vacuum at 0 2-0.7 nm/s from a
thermal source under an operating pressure of 1026 Torr. For characterization,
the device was illuminated with the 488 nm line of

An argon laser with an intensity of 27 mW/cm2. The temperature of the

device during characterization, performed in an inert environment, was
approximately 25 o c

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 Light

Fig. 6. (a) Schematic diagrams of the device structure of the bulk

heterojunction solar cell connected to an external resistive load

 Squeegee
 Polymer film

Fig. 6. (b) Schematic diagrams of the screen-printing technique.

Fig. 6. Schematic diagrams of (a) the device structure of the bulk

heterojunction solar cell connected to an external resistive load and (b) the screen-
printing technique.

Fig. 7. Plot of the current density

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 Fig. 7. Plot of the current density (absolute value) versus voltage for the
solar cell operated in the dark (filled squares) and under illumination (hollow
squares) by monochromatic light with a wavelength of 488 nm and an intensity
of 27 mW/cm2. The short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage; fill factor, and
power conversion efficiency are 3.16 mA/cm2, 841 mV, 0.44, and 4 3%,
respectively. The temperature of the device during measurement was
approximately 25 0 C.

The current density-voltage characteristics of the device under illumination

and in the dark are shown in Fig. 6. The rectification of the device in the dark is
approximately 5000 at 1/22 V. This indicates a good diode behaviour and a high
shunt (parallel) resistance as a result of conformal coverage of the PEDOT: PSS
layer by the screen printed MDMOPPV: PCBM active layer. Under illumination,
the short circuit current density is 3.16 mA/cm2, which corresponds to external
quantum efficiency (incident photons to converted electrons) of 30%. The open-
circuit voltage and fill factor are 841 mV and 0.44, respectively, and the resulting
power conversion efficiency is 4.3% The external quantum efficiency of the
device is limited by the optical absorption of the 40 nm thick active layer. By
comparing the amount of light reflected from the device compared to the amount
of light reflected from a glass/lTO/PEDOT: PSS/aluminium reference sample,
the optical absorption of the active layer was measured to be approximately 33%.
Thus, the internal quantum efficiency (absorbed photons to converted electrons)
of the device under short-circuit conditions is approximately 90% at an incident
wavelength of 488 nm.

In summary, the screen printing technique has been used to deposit the
active layer in a bulk heterojunction "plastic" solar cell. The power conversion
efficiency of the device was 4.3% under monochromatic illumination. We expect
that the power conversion efficiency will be improved as the film thickness is
increased and interfaces are modified. These results illustrate that screen printing

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can be a powerful technique for the fast, inexpensive fabrication of roll-to-roll
polymer optoelectronic devices while retaining nanometer-scale control of the
film thickness. The application of this technique to the fabrication of an organic
solar cell further increases the strong potential that these devices have for
practical use.

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 7. MODERN PLASTIC SOLAR CELL
This short review provides an overview of research on organic photovoltaic
(OPV) devices and many of the materials used in their construction. The sharp
rise in societal interest in carbon-neutral, green energy technology in the 21st
century has spurred a commensurate rise in research into OPV materials. The
volume of this research, which spans chemistry, physics, and materials science,
is too great to review in detail in one paper, thus our intent is to give an overview
that can serve as an entry point for non-experts into the field or as a guide for
researchers in tangential fields who have a general interest in OPV materials
research. We focus on two broad categories of OPV devices, ‘plastic’ solar cells
comprising a conjugated polymer and a fullerene acceptor and hybrid organic–
inorganic solar cells that blend inorganic semi-conductors into organic materials,
and the basic principles of designing and understanding new materials and
devices. For brevity, we omit small-molecule OPV devices, which are
functionally nearly equivalent to polymer-based devices, and direct the reader to
recent publications on this topic [1–3].

Photovoltaic cells use the energy of absorbed photons to generate free

charge carriers (holes and electrons) which can do electrical work. Organic
photovoltaic cells are photovoltaic devices that accomplish this conversion of
energy using organic materials – either entirely or as part of a blend. In all cases,
at least one of the charge carriers traverses a bulk organic material. Silicon-based
(and many other inorganic-based) photovoltaic devices generate free carriers
directly from the absorption of a photon, but presently known organic materials
do not screen charges as effectively as silicon (because of their lower dielectric
constant), which introduces extra steps in the mechanism. In modern OPV
devices, the absorption of a photon creates an exciton (i.e. a bound electron-hole
pair) which must then be split into free carriers before it decays back to the
ground-state, thus OPV devices are ‘excitonic’ solar cells. This scission process
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takes place at the interface between the two constituent materials, a donor and an
acceptor. These materials are chosen such that energy offsets between the energy
levels exist, thus making charge transfer energetically favored (Figure 8a).

Fig 8 (a) Band diagram of a donor–acceptor combination showing HOMO

and LUMO offsets. (b) Typical current–voltage characteristics of organic
solar cells in dark and under illumination.

These materials can be.layered or intimately mixed, provided there is a

continuous pathway for both holes and electrons to traverse toward the
electrodes..Figure 9 is a cartoon of a typical architecture for an OPV device with
an inset showing the four basic steps of the exciton scission process at the
interface between the donor and acceptor (in reality, many different phases exist
in the heterojunction, the cartoon is simplified for clarity).

A cartoon of an organic photovoltaic device. The active layer comprises

the donor and acceptor materials. The inset is a schematic of the scission of an
exciton at the interface between the donor (red) and acceptor (blue) materials.
(I) The absorption of a photon creates and exciton. (II) The exciton delocalizes

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to the donor/acceptor interface. (III) A charge-transfer state is created between
the two materials. (IV) The charge transfer state dissociates into free carriers
which then diffuse into the bulk.

Fig 9 A cartoon of an organic photovoltaic device.

(I) A photon is absorbed by either the donor or the acceptor, creating an

exciton. (II) The exciton then diffuses to the interface between the donor and the
acceptor. (The distance over which an exciton can travel before decaying is the
exciton diffusion length.) (III) When the exciton reaches the interface, an electron
is transferred to the acceptor (or a hole is transferred onto the donor) creating a
so-called charge-transfer (CT) state in which the charges reside on different
molecules, but remain bound to each other by coulombic attraction. (IV) The
charges overcome this attraction and the CT state dissociates into two free charge
carriers, an electron (e) and a hole (h+), which then travel into the bulk, and
eventually into the electrodes. The drift-direction of the charge-carriers is
influenced by a difference in work function of the two metallic contacts, which
can be further optimized by introducing blocking layers . Hole and electron
blocking layers are not present in all OPV devices, but are becoming increasingly

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common in architectures in which both the donor and the acceptor are in contact
with both electrodes. The cathode material has historically been a low work
function metal such as Ca or Al and the anode/substrate of a thin film of
poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) on tin-
doped indium oxide (ITO) on glass or a transparent polymer substrate, but neither
is particularly well suited for deployment in commercial devices, which require
solution-processable electrode materials (e.g. silver inks).

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8. PLASTIC SOLAR CELLS “THE NEX-GEN POWER”

Technology has reached to such a dizzy height that man leaves no stone
unturned to find the least alternatives. Such an innovation has led to the rise of
plastic solar cells; rightly called “the next-gen power”. These cells apart from
their specific design & cost converts solar energy into electric energy in a very
cost-effective way. In addition with being cost-effective, plastic solar panels are
also flexible, light weight, and thin, which enables new applications, not possible
using traditional silicon solar panel technology; thus providing renewable energy
from sun. They open up a wide range of new application areas in renewable
energy, which are not currently addressable with conventional silicon solar panel
technology. Plastic solar panels will be the first in solar capable of generating
electricity on par with conventional fuel costs.

Plastic solar cell technology has the advantage over other renewable sources of
energy in a numerous ways.Low cost of raw material and manufacturing ,low
material usage, fabrication at low temperature and ecofriendly are some of the
factors that supports the use of plastic solar cells. The development of
inexpensive, mass-produced plastic solar panels is a goal of intense interest for
many of the world's scientists and engineers because of the high cost and shortage
of the ultra-high purity silicon and other materials normally required.

Organic plastic is intrinsically flexible and easy to bond to flexible substrates such
as plastic and metal foils. Combined with the extremely thin active layer, this
enables light weight and flexible applications. Starting from mobile charging to
driving a battery powered vehicle these cells find utmost importance in our day-
to-day life.

Plastic solar cells are made up of layers of different materials, each with a specific
function, called a sandwich structure. One layer absorbs the light, another helps

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to generate the electricity, and others help to draw the electricity out of the device.
Normally, the layers don't stick well, and so the electricity ends up stuck and
never gets out, leading to inefficient devices. A new process for printing plastic
solar cells boosts the power generated by the flexible and cheap form of
photovoltaics. The bottom cell is filled with a proprietary polymer. The polymer
(a derivative of polythiophene) absorbs both infrared and ultraviolet light. Next
comes a titanium-suboxide layer, which seals in the bottom cell, provides a
foundation for building the top layer, and, as it's a metal, efficiently carries away
the charged electrons generated in both layers. Finally, the top layer sports a
different type of conducting polymer that absorbs mostly blue and green light. .
Efficiency is significantly lower, however, because polymers are poor charge
conductors.

These organic semiconductors are soft, carbon-based materials synthesized from

products (often byproducts) of the petroleum industry. The molecular structures
of these materials have an alternating arrangement of single and double bonds
between carbon atoms. A system of atoms arranged in this way is said to be
conjugated which is the basis of everyday effects such as the colors of chlorophyll
and beta-carotene. Such a molecule accommodates electric charge relatively
easily, by allowing the charge to spread out over all its atoms. Conjugated
molecules together form a solid semiconductor, with properties like those of
silicon. The absorption of light and the separation of charges take place within a
thin film of about one hundred nanometers. This film contains both n- and p-type
materials, and is sandwiched between two types of electrodes: a transparent
electrode and a reflective electrode. The transparent electrode usually collects
holes, while the reflective electrode usually collects electrons. If efficient plastic
solar cells could be made inexpensively, what would be the outcome? The dream
is that energy would be revolutionized through the use of cheap solar material
that could be paved onto flat expanses or spray-painted onto cars. Realistic and

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short-term applications for plastic solar cells include lightweight power sources
for portable (even wearable) electronics; low-cost, off-grid power for rural areas
of developing countries; and other applications in which low cost, rather than
state-of-the-art efficiency, is the goal. Plastic solar cells could become an
important source of renewable energy, but more research is required to overcome
limitations in efficiency. Nevertheless a better future of clean energy can be
expected in the near future.

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 9. APPLICATIONS

 Silicon possesses some Nano scale properties. This is being exploited in

the development of a super thin disposable solar panel poster which
could offer the rural dwellers a cheap and an alternative source of power.
Most people living in remote areas are not linked to national electricity grid
and use batteries or run their own generator to supply their power needs.
Disposal solar panels can be made in thin sheets with about 6-10 sheets
stacked together and made into a poster can help them to some extent in
this regard. This poster could be mounted behind a window or attached to
a cabinet.

 Like paint the compound can also be sprayed onto other materials and used
as portable electricity.

 Any chip coated in the material could power cell phone or other wireless
devices.

 A hydrogen powered car painted with the film could potentially convert
energy into electricity to continually recharge the car’s battery.

 One day solar farms consisting of plastic materials could be rolled across
deserts to generate enough clear energy to supply the entire planet’s power
needs.
 Plastic formulations also open the possibility of printing solar cells onto
various surfaces, much as ink is printed on a newspaper.

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 Lightweight and flexible plastic solar cell painted on the back of it could
power portable electronics equipments like PDAS, laptops and pocket
calculators etc. anywhere we can access solar energy.
 The new cells also open up possibilities for wearable computing devices.
 OF unctions of plastic solar cell similar in visible region are needed in the
infrared region for many imaging applications in the medical field and for
fiber optic communications.
 DU Itra high efficient plastic solar cells are expected to work well in low-
light conditions and under artificial light along with the increased
wavelength region.
 DA big attraction of dye-based PVs. is that they can be colored and even
patterned to resemble normal roofing material or military camouflage. The
US military appears to agree, having already placed orders for PV material
as part of on-going development programmers with army, navy, airforce
and Marine Corps.

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 10. ADVANTAGES

Plastic solar cells are quite a lot useful in the coming future. This is because
of the large number of advantages it has got. Some of the major advantages are:

1. They are considered to be 30% more efficient when compared to

conventional solar cells.
2. They are more efficient and more practical in application.

3. Traditional solar cells are bulky panels. This is very compact.

4. Conventional solar cells are only used for large applications with big budgets.
But the plastic solar cells are feasible as they can be even sewn into fabric-
thus having vast applications.

5. Flexible, roller processed solar cells have the potential to turn the sun’s power
into a clean, green, consistent source of energy.

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 11. DISADVANTAGES

1. The biggest problem with this is cost effectiveness. But that could change
with new material. But chemists have found a way to make cheap plastic solar
cells flexible enough to paint onto any surface and potentially able to provide
electricity for wearable electronics or other low power devices.

2. Relatively shorter life span when continuously exposed to sunlight.

3. Could possibly require higher maintenance and constant monitoring.

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 CONCLUSION

Plastic solar cells help in exploiting the infrared radiation from the sun’s rays.
They are more effective when compared to the conventional solar cell. The major
advantage they enjoy is that they can even work on cloudy days, which is not
possible in the former. They are more compact and less bulky.

Though at present, cost is a major drawback, it is bound be solved in the near

future as scientists are working in that direction.

As explained earlier, if the solar farms can become a reality, it could possibly
solve the planets problem of depending too much on the fossil fuels, without a
chance of even polluting the environment.

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 REFERENCES

1. Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications: Edelstein, A. S.,

Cammarata, R. C., Eds.; Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol and
Philadelphia, 1996.

2. The Coming Era of Nanotechnology; 1987. Drexler, K. Eric, Doubleday; New

York.

3. A gentle introduction to the next big idea-Mark A. Ratner, Daniel Ratner.

4. Introduction to nanotechnology- Charles P Poole, Frank J Owens.

5. The clean power revolution- Troy Helming.

6. Solar energy-fundamentals, design, modeling, applications- G.N. Tiwari.

7. Thin film solar cells next generation photovoltaic and its application- Y
Hamakawa.

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 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What is plastic solar cell technology?

An organic solar cell (OSC) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses
organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic
polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to
produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect.

What is infrared plastic solar cell?

The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the 1st generation solar
cells that can harness the sun's invisible infrared rays. Nano particles called
quantum dots are combined with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect
energy in the infrared.

Are solar panels made of plastic?

Polycrystalline solar cells are also silicon cells, but rather than being formed in a
large block and cut into wafers, they are produced by melting multiple silicon
crystals together. ... Amorphous silicon cells are non-crystalline and instead are
attached to a substrate like glass, plastic or metal.

How do polymer solar cells work?

The cell generates electricity by absorbing particles of light, or photons. When

the cell absorbs light, a photon knocks out an electron in a polymer atom, leaving
behind an empty space, which scientists refer to as a hole. ... This continuous
movement of electrons from hole to hole produces an electric current.

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