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Silicon days over? New organic solar panel offers increased efficiency | Organic semiconductors offer a viable alternative to silicon-based photovoltaic panels at a lower cost and with greater flexibility.
Researchers discover a counterintuitive energy gain in organic semiconductors, potentially boosting organic solar cell efficiency.
“They can potentially lower the production cost for solar panels because these materials can be coated on arbitrary surfaces using solution-based methods — just like how we paint a wall,” explained Wai-Lun Chan, associate professor of physics & astronomy at the University of Kansas. A new class of materials called non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) pushed organic solar cell efficiency closer to 20%, narrowing the gap with silicon. “For organic molecules arranged in a specific nanoscale structure, the typical direction of the heat flow is reversed for the total entropy to increase,” Rijal explained in a press release.
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