THE POWER OF PLASTIC

Abstract

LIKE A ONE-TWO punch combination, “cheap” and “plastic” are sometimes hurled one after the other at manufactured goods to denote poor quality—as in “cheap plastic toy” or “cheap plastic car parts.” Although the C and P words are used in those cases pejoratively, when it comes to certain types of solar cells, cheap and plastic are precisely what make them so attractive. Any type of device that converts light to electricity holds promise for tapping the essentially inexhaustible and non-carbon-emitting energy supply that flows from the sun. Devices that mediate that energy conversion by way of light-sensitive organic polymers or other organic molecules may be especially attractive because of the low cost of the materials and manufacturing methods required to produce such cells. Inexpensive polymer-based solar cells, which are also known as organic photovoltaic cells, already exist; they have been around since the 1990s. But their performance, and in particular the efficiency with which they ...