Researchers have made near-transparent solar cells that are efficient enough to charge a phone battery. The advance, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a glimpse at a future in which a phone or laptop screen could soak up the sun to power its battery. The technology could also lead to glass building facades and car windows that harness sunlight for electricity.
Today’s solar cells, made of crystalline silicon, are opaque, usually shiny blue or almost black in appearance. Scientists have been trying to develop see-through solar cells for years because they could expand the use of solar cells in unconventional applications such as windows and greenhouses. But both the transparency and the efficiency of see-through solar cells need improvement.
“The practical application still faces numerous hurdles,” Kwanyong Seo, a professor of energy and chemical engineering and his team at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology write in the PNAS paper.
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