Solar cells collect sunlight and use that energy to produce electricity. Researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) published a paper during July 2007 announcing they had developed an improved solar cell. It is a simple, inexpensive cell that can be easily deposited onto flexible plastic substrates or sheets. The sheets may then be fixed to a wall, roof or other suitable surface to collect sunlight and generate electrical power. The innovation is described as graphene and new flexible solar panel technology.

A solar panel is simply a number of cells linked together. The size of both a cell and a panel can vary. Cells can range from the nanoscale to about a meter in length and height. Panels vary in size according to the incorporated cells; they do not have any real size limits apart from those dictated by the practicalities of handling and transport.

A key feature of the Graphene And New Flexible Solar Panel Technology NJIT cell is that it is an organic-based not silicon-based cell. Most solar panels currently produced use silicon-based cells. The cells are made using purified silicon, the exact same material used to make the microchips used in computers. By contrast, the NJIT cell uses an organic material, usually an organic polymer, to perform the function or role of the silicon. The reason for developing an organic cell is that it is easier and cheaper to make.

The problem with most organic cells designed to-date has been that they have generally been technically inefficient. When sunlight shines on a silicon cell, it excites electrons in the silicon generating a negative charge in some electrons and a positive charge in others. The cell then requires a mechanism to separate the negatively charged electrons from the positively charged electrons and effectively direct them to the correct electrode. If these tasks are completely well, an electrical current flows.

Various alternative organic cells have been designed over the years. Most have suffered from at least two shortcomings. First, they have found it difficult to capture the electrons excited in the organic polymer. Second, organic-based cells have found it difficult to separate the negatively charged electrons from the positively charged electrons and then direct them to the correct electrode. The organic cell designed by the NJIT team addresses both these issues.

One innovative aspect introduced by the NJIT is the use of tiny carbon Buckyballs, also known as fullerenes, together with an organic polymer. The carbon Buckyballs effectively trap excited electrons from the organic material and separates the negatively charged from those positively charged.

A second innovation is to use carbon nanotubes, a molecular configuration of carbon in a cylindrical shape. The nanotubes are about 50,000 times smaller than a human hair. Because of their miniscule size, nanotubes join together to form snake-like structures that conduct electrical current very efficiently, better than conventional cooper wire.

In short, the Buckyballs trap and separates electrons while the nanotubes make them flow in the desired direction. The nanotubes then behave like copper wires, directing the Buckyballs with those trapped electrons to move to the appropriate electrode. The overall result is an electrical current. The NJIT cell, or graphene and new flexible solar panel technology, is efficient because it captures and separates a high percentage of the excited electrons and, secondly, moves a high percentage of those captured electrons to the correct electrode.