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Flexible, Fiber-Optic Solar Cell Could Be Woven Into Clothing
MrSeb writes "An international team of engineers, physicists, and chemists have created the first fiber-optic solar cell. These fibers are thinner than human hair, flexible, and yet they produce electricity, just like a normal solar cell. The U.S. military is already interested in weaving these threads into clothing, to provide a wearable power source for soldiers. In essence, the research team started with optical fibers made from glass — and then, using high-pressure chemical vapor deposition, injected n-, i-, and p-type silicon into the fiber, turning it into a solar cell (abstract). Functionally, these silicon-doped fiber-optic threads are identical to conventional solar cells, generating electricity from the photovoltaic effect. Whereas almost every solar cell on the market is crafted out of 2D, planar amorphous silicon on a rigid/brittle glass substrate, though, these fiber-optic solar cells have a 3D cross-section and retain the glass fiber's intrinsic flexibility. The lead researcher, John Badding of Penn State University, says the team has already produced 'meters-long fiber,' and that their new technique could be used to create 'bendable silicon solar-cell fibers of over 10 meters in length.' From there, it's simply a matter of weaving the thread into a fabric."
Forget your phone, this could provide endless power for medical devices from insulin pumps to more exotic things like replacement limbs and those artificial eyes that are getting better each year (you get to see a 12x12 pixel image now! wooo, shiney). One of the problems with medical devices is finding a continuous power supply.
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Uh, yeah. Let me guess. It should be on the market in five years, just like every other solar technical wonder.
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First thing I thought of too, but makes me wonder how flexible this would be, could it be folded? How about ironed and washed without damage? No idea about fiber optics (a minute on Google didn't help) but those seem to be pertinent questions before it's ready to be integrated into clothes. The whole multi-angle light collection seems like it could be pretty useful as well.
I assume you mean 48 hours, and that sounds wrong. The little "folding wallet" solar chargers do it in under a day.
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Everyone is speculating about how this could be used in clothing, but I think this is the wrong use case. Clothing has too little sun facing surface area to produce the amounts of electricity to be more useful than existing battery tech.
However, the military uses a lot of cloth in large sun facing swaths. Ever seen a tent city? Tents are the perfect use case for this tech. Large surface areas, can be oriented towards the sun, rarely washed, never ironed, and only folded up for transport or storage. Integrating the solar tech into the fabric instead of an extra add on package would be ideal.
Your math is off by orders of magnitude.
A solar panel produces 8-10 watts per square foot. A smartphone while charging (with the screen off) typically draws no more than 500 mA at 5VDC, or about 2.5 watts. Some support faster charging at up to an amp. Either way, it requires nowhere near your entire surface area; with traditional PV cells, a typical adult could produce that much power with just one sleeve in full sun, give or take.
How that translates to flexible PV threads is anybody's guess.
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better yet install solar panels on every roof of every house.
Even if each house only generates 50% of the power they use the entire power grid would be far more stable
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