A stumbling block for developing flexible solar cells has been the need for a smooth growth substrate to ensure high device efficiency. While glass is readily available, smooth and non-porous, it is also brittle, which makes the flexible properties of the other materials in the device redundant. Now researchers at the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona (ICFO) show that by introducing a sacrificial layer of nanoparticles into the architecture they can grow high-performance solar cells and peel them of the glass substrate while maintaining an impressive efficiency…..
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/67330