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OLEDs May Generate Electricity

Posted by timothy on from the another-step-toward-off-grid-computing dept.

NewmansDaddy writes: "According to a PCMag article, 'When the OLEDs are working as a display, you apply electricity to the materials and they emit light. It turns out, however, that if you apply light to these devices, you can get them to produce electricity; in other words, they will run backward...'"

6 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. not both by bearbones · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Read the article

    It says that to generate electricity it needs to be formulated differently.

    So you get a display or a solar cell, not both.

    But, maybe they can work on an new proccess that does both.

  2. Bah humbug by BoBaBrain · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In the same way that a speaker will work as a microphone?

    Just because it's possible doesn't make it a good idea or even news...

    --
    I am a Karma Library.
  3. Bad Consequences? by SanLouBlues · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hopefully they don't work too well. Otherwise a flash photograph could fry the display chip on OLED using pdas. I guess they might need to start surge supressing the display.

  4. nope by bcboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Efficiency is only part of the issue. The other is expense and difficulty of manufacturing. If it's less efficient but cheaper, it's still viable.

    1. Re:nope by Peter+T+Ermit · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Even with 15% efficiency solar cells, you probably wouldn't be able to power a laptop or extend its battery life appreciably. The point I was trying to make was that even if this stuff were cheap, and did last, and were easy to bond with computer cases (none of which is obvious), it would still be useless because of this.

  5. Organic Solar Cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    OLEDS and Organic Photovoltaics are obviously based on similar designs, but there are optimized differently. This is clear since OLEDS are meant to emit one wavelength only, where the ideal solar cell absorbs as many wavelengths as possible. The highest solar efficiency reached with organic solar cells are 3 and 4.5 for polymer based and organic crystal based, respectively. In the end, the overall efficiency is NOT the point... although the best single crystal inorganic solar cells have efficiencies of over 20% (yes, check... GaAs thin films, used in space), they are extremely expensive. What makes Organic solar cells attractive are the fact that they don't need elaborate fabrication (theoretically), and thus will cost more than 4 times less... so for large scale applications one can just install more than 4X the solar cells for less money. Obviously this doesn't help those who want to power their laptops out in the middle of the desert, but when it comes to scaled economic viability, they are still relevent. Hence why so many people are working on them.