UCLA researchers create highly transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity

[OKIsItJustMe]

23. Perhaps you should take the time to read the actual paper (rather than the press release.)

(There’s a link to it in the OP.)

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/nn3029327

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Visibly Transparent Polymer Solar Cells Produced by Solution Processing[/font]

…

[font size=4]ABSTRACT[/font]

[font size=3]Visibly transparent photovoltaic devices can open photovoltaic applications in many areas, such as building-integrated photovoltaics or integrated photovoltaic chargers for portable electronics. We demonstrate high-performance, visibly transparent polymer solar cells fabricated via solution processing. The photoactive layer of these visibly transparent polymer solar cells harvests solar energy from the near-infrared region while being less sensitive to visible photons. The top transparent electrode employs a highly transparent silver nanowire—metal oxide composite conducting film, which is coated through mild solution processes. With this combination, we have achieved 4% power-conversion efficiency for solution-processed and visibly transparent polymer solar cells. The optimized devices have a maximum transparency of 66% at 550 nm.

…

Conclusions and Prospects. We have demonstrated high-performance, solution-processed, visibly transparent polymer solar cells through the incorporation of near-infrared light-sensitive polymer and using silver nanowire composite films as the top transparent electrode. The near-infrared photoactive polymer PBDTT-DPP absorbs more near-infrared light but is less sensitive to visible light, balancing solar cell performance and transparency in the visible wavelength region. The transparent top electrode is a fully solution-processed silver nanowire-based composite film, which is compatible with common PSC materials. With this combination, we have achieved ~4% power-conversion efficiency for the solution-processed and visibly transparent solar cells, while the devices have high transparency, 66% at 550 nm. These results open the potential for visibly transparent polymer solar cells as add-on components of multijunction photovoltaic devices, smart windows, and building-integrated photovoltaics and in other applications.

…[/font][/font]