| Project Detail |
Printed solar cells turning ambient light into energy
Internet of Things devices are proliferating, and have streamlined and improved our lives. However, they also bring a new set of challenges to the industry, including limited battery life, excessive power consumption, and e-waste. With the support of the EIC-funded LAYER® project, France-based start-up Dracula Technologies aims to eliminate the use of lithium-ion batteries through its inkjet-printed photovoltaic technology. Dracula’s LAYER technology is an organic photovoltaic solution that generates energy from light to charge low-consumption indoor devices, even in low-light conditions. Because they are printed and not made of silicon, the organic photovoltaic modules can be customised to different shapes and sizes.
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are one of the most important electrochemical energy storage system for IoT devices (in 2015, 5.6B LIBs were sold worldwide). However, lithium mining is extremely damaging to the environment and it harms the soil and causes air contamination. Furthermore, the typical estimated life of a LIB is about very short, 2/3 years or 300 to 500 charge cycles, whichever occurs first. Dracula Technologies has developed the LAYER, the green alternative to LIBs. The LAYER® is an OPV module produced through inkjet printing that generates energy from ambient light and that is specifically designed for IoT devices, such as smart home tools. It consists of 2 electrodes,2 interfacial layers and the active LAYER®, made of organic raw materials (semiconducting organic molecules or polymers, fullerene derivatives, non-fullerene derivatives). It is less than 5mm thick and its power conversion efficiency (PCE) under outdoor and indoor illumination is respectively 12% and 25%. |
