Adhesive tape produces electricity

Scientists in the United States invented a solar cell that is so thin that people can paste it on cell phones, windows and many other things.

Xiaolin Zheng, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University in the United States, and his colleagues built a paper-like solar cell with a stickiness, Tech News Daily reported.

"Now you can paste solar cells on safety helmets, cell phones, windows, electronic devices, curved roofs, pants, shirts. In general, you can paste it on everything" , Zheng to speak.

A researcher pasted ultra-thin solar panels on business cards. (Photo: Stanford University)

With solar cells as thin as adhesive tape, the purpose of Zheng's group is to turn every human-use item every day into a tool to produce electricity. Solar panels on shirts can help mobile phones, music players recharge in their pockets, and solar cells on electric cars will help the car accumulate more electricity when they stop at the same time they run.

All current solar panels are mounted on a hardened plate of glass or silicon. To make thin and flexible panels, researchers have to remove the rigid sheets and replace them with soft supports. Zheng's group still put the battery on a hard silicon plate, but coated nickel plating on the surface of the plate. The presence of nickel plating makes it easy to peel off the battery plate from silicon sheet.

When you want to attach the battery to an object, the user embeds the battery in water at room temperature. Water molecules get in between the nickel and silicon so humans can peel the battery off the silicon plate and paste it into the object.

"The solar panel's electricity production efficiency has not decreased after it has been removed from the support plate. Then we can use a support plate to make another solar panel," Zheng said.