Transparency - Page 6

Researchers from MIT developed a new way to use Graphene as an electrode for organic solar cells. The biggest problem with using Graphene in such a device was getting the material to adhere to the panel. Graphene repels water, so typical procedures for producing an electrode on the surface by depositing the material from a solution won’t work.

The team tried a variety of approaches to alter the surface properties of the cell or to use solutions other than water to deposit the carbon on the surface, and they found that doping the surface — that is, introducing a set of impurities into the surface — changed the way it behaved, and allowed the graphene to bond tightly. As a bonus, it turned out the doping also improved the material’s electrical conductivity.

Researchers from MIT have created a new organic solar cell that uses transparent Graphene based electrodes. The new electrodes are made by using AuCl₃ to dope graphene, which makes it more durable and more efficient.

Transparent solar cells are useful because they can be used inside windows, and researchers are looking to replace ITO that is used in current designs.

Scientists from the University of Maryland in College Park has created a spinning graphene disk that is the fastest spinning object ever: 60 million rotations per minute. The scientists sprayed charged graphene flakes a micrometer wide into a vacuum chamber. Once there, oscillating electric fields trapped the flakes in mid-air. They then set them spinning using a light beam that is circularly polarize, meaning it passes its momentum to objects in its path. As a result, the flakes started spinning.

They actually aid that this is only about a thousandth of Graphene's theoretical maximum rate - at least the Graphene is strong enough for such speeds.

Researchers at Stanford University have successfully developed a brand new concept of OLEDs with a few nanometer of graphene as transparent conductor. This paved the way for inexpensive mass production of OLEDs on large-area low-cost flexible plastic substrate, which could be rolled up like wallpaper and virtually applied to anywhere you want. The researchers say that Graphene has the potential to be transparent, high-performance, highly conductive and cheaper by several orders of magnitude than current ITO based solutions.

Graphene OLED

Traditionally, indium tin oxide (ITO) is used in OLEDs, but indium is rare, expensive and difficult to recycle. Scientists have been actively searching for an alternative candidate.

Researchers from Sweden and the US have produced a new transparent lighting component that is made from Graphene. They say it is cheap to make and fully recyclable, and might be an alternative to OLED Lighting. The new device is called an Organic Light-emitting Electrochemical Cell, or LEC. The Graphene is used for an electrode. 

LECs can be made using a roll-to-roll process, because all of its parts can be made from liquid solutions.

Vorbeck materials announced that it has received EPA approval to manufacture Graphene as a conductive additive for inks. EPA’s approval, which was granted under the terms of the Low Exposure, Low Release Exemption Rule (LoREX), enables the company to offer Vor-ink, a highly conductive, versatile, and low-cost, conductive ink, for commercial sale to the printed electronics industry.