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Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Linköping University researchers created organic solar panels from wood derivatives. Specifically, they used lignin from wood pulp to improve the stability and eco-friendliness of their solar cells. Despite being an organic material, lignin allows energy transfer across them.
Green technologies defeat their purpose if we create them using environmentally harmful methods. For example, electric batteries can still contribute to climate change if we do not properly dispose of waste from mining its materials. Fortunately, the latest research from these Swedish institutions could help solve this problem for solar panels.
This article will discuss how researchers created organic solar panels from wood by-products. Later, I will share other amazing breakthroughs we have achieved with wood.
Making paper involves turning wood into wood pulp using the Kraft Process. ScienceDirect says Kraft Lignin (KL) is one of its by-products. That is what the scientists used to create their organic solar panels.
Lignin forms robust hydrogen bonds with traditional cathode interface layer (CIL) materials like bathocuproine (BCP). They are the substances that make up the part that turns sunlight into electricity.
The combination of BCP and KL creates a binary interface layer that can surpass the stability and efficiency of traditional CiLs. Electrons must pass between a solar cell’s organic materials and the cathode interface.
Lignin can form those bonds, enabling energy transfer across a solar cell.
