Lichtgedanken 04

S C HW E R P U N K T 17 04 | LICHT GEDANKEN for anything that can be layered, such as packaging materials, billboard ad- vertising and signs, which need to light up at night without cables.« As the polymer batteries can be charged and discharged 1,000 times, they are tailored to product life cycles. One pre-requisite for wide-scale use is that the solar batteries must be easy to apply to the materials during produc- tion. Schubert and Hager are optimis- tic in this regard and some companies have already registered an interest. »The technology does not represent competition to classic silicon solar cells or lithium-ion batteries«, emphasises Schubert. »Rather, the solar batteries offer totally new, complementary op- tions for processing and applications.« And what might sound like fanciful gimmicks are in fact extremely sus- tainable: »Solar batteries are not just environmentally friendly in terms of their usage, but in terms of production too«, explains Martin Hager. »We use organic polymers and thus there are no non-organic materials in the batteries, which are critical or even toxic. Fur- thermore, the comparatively cost-ef- fective manufacturing process for the Image left: Sunlight is a virtually inex- haustible source of energy. Organic solar batteries represent one way to store this energy so it can be used in a sustainable manner. Image top right: The polymers for the solar batteries are processed in an inert gas preparation plan (or »a glovebox«). Image bottom right: The polymer solar cells are tested under LED lighting. polymer, recyclable plastics uses far less energy than that for convention- al batteries.« In terms of future chal- lenges, the task now is to optimise the capacities of the solar batteries and to find further applications. »Solar batteries could also be used in the Internet of Things and in smart building façades. It could even be possi- ble to create nappies that communicate when they are full via a sensor«, says Hager. »Although there are other ways to find that out«, he adds, grinning. As long as the sun shines in the sky, there are no limits to their possible uses. Contact Prof. Dr Ulrich S. Schubert, Dr Martin Hager Institute for Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry Humboldtstraße 10, D-07743 Jena, Germany Phone: +49 36 41 9-48 201 Email: ulrich.schubert@uni-jena.de martin.hager@uni-jena.de www.chemgeo.uni-jena.de/iomc.html Further Information: www.ceec.uni-jena.de www.schubert-group.de