The researchers sprayed New Energy’s electricity-generating coatings onto flexible, lightweight lab-scale plastic (polyethylene terephthalate or “PET”) at room temperature and at low pressure, which they say could reduce manufacturing costs. They managed to overcome “conventional issues with surface preparation†when preparing the PET prototype, which is crucial in order to achieve maximum strength of the coatings’ bond to the surface and for more durability and longevity.
Besides, researchers were able to maintain the working ‘architecture’ of New Energy’s SolarWindow while achieving flexibility. The SolarWindow architecture enables important functions such as generating solar electricity on the surface of plastic and distributing electricity to the circuit.
And how would this translate into a commercial product? New Energy scientists envisage a see-through tinted window film. It’s not exactly a new idea, but it has been stymied in the past by difficulties such as temperature-specific and pressure sensitive methods (which were also expensive and cumbersome) for applying coating to plastic surfaces. The company’s flexible plastic overcomes such obstacles, they say.
With an estimated 85 million commercial buildings and homes in the U.S., New Energy believes there is huge potential for its SolarWindow technology, which is the subject of ten new patent filings.
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