Stretchable and Printable Solar Cells
A major research goal of the Lipomi laboratory is the development of a "solar tarp," a mechanically durable light-harvesting textile that could be deployed in defense and disaster relief scenarios to protect people from the elements while providing power to life saving logistic and medical equipment below. My role was to develop applied projects and prototypes to advance scientific understanding and showcase the new devices enabled by co-engineering both mechanical durability and electronic performance into organic semiconductors. My deepest appreciation to my colleagues whom I had the great honor of working with to help build the Lipomi Lab of the past 5 years and to Prof. Darren Lipomi, who lead our team to success. A link to his laboratory website can be found by clicking here!
Image: Wearable solar cell powering a digital watch using only sunlight.
Video: Ultra-thin solar cell conforming to the wrist as the muscle is flexed and relaxed.
Wearable Solar Cells
Using all printable electronic polymers, we have designed ultra-flexible solar cells capable of conforming to something as dynamic and unpredictable as the human body. These wearable solar cells are low cost, amenable to high-throughput manufacturing techniques, and convert more than enough energy to power other wearable electronics, like this digital watch shown here, or to one day provide power for wearable biomedical devices. This work was published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.
Schematic of a stretchable solar cell transfer printed onto the surface of a glass hemisphere.
Stretchable Printed Solar Cells
In this project we built the first bi-axially stretchable solar cells and transfer printed them on the surface of a glass hemisphere. We successfully demonstrated how important the engineering of mechanical durability is to the application of flexible and stretchable electronics. This work was published in Energy and Environmental Sciences.
The Fundamentals
Here is where we get down to the nitty gritty to the micro- and nano-scopic scales. The key aspect of materials engineering that enables us to build these new devices is a deep understanding of the way molecular structure and thin-film microstructure determine the charge-transport and mechanical properties of each layer of the device. Using both theories and empirical techniques, we have established many design rules to co-optimize the photovoltaic properties and mechanical compliance into the same materials.
This work was led by my colleague and good friend Dr. Suchol Savagatrup who is now working on his postdoctoral studies at MIT. He is one of the most intelligent, organized, and driven humans I have ever had the pleasure of working with and I highly encourage checking out more of his work!