Plastic solar cell reaches 6.5% efficiency

mdsolar writes: "The MIT Technology Review reports on work published in Science about a tandem polymer solar cell that achieves 6.5% efficiency, a new record for this potentially inexpensive form of photovoltaic cell.

Until now, however, the tandem architecture spoiled plastic photovoltaics such as Heeger's, which are "printed" by spraying solutions of conductive plastics and other materials onto a plastic film. Layers of different plastics sprayed on top tended to mix, degrading rather than enhancing power output. Heeger and his colleagues beat the mixing problem by finding an effective spray-on separator to keep the layers in place.

Given other developments in this field, achieving 10% efficiency may be within reach."