Solarmer Energy Inc., founded in 2006 to commercialise polymer solar cell technology developed by the Yang Yang group at UCLA, are using a new semiconducting material (”PTB1″) invented by University of Chicago chemists.
The University licensed the patent rights to the technology to Solarmer last September. The license covers several polymers under development in Yu’s laboratory [...].
An advantage of the Chicago technology is its simplicity. Several laboratories around the country have invented other polymers that have achieved efficiencies similar to those of Yu’s polymers, but these require far more extensive engineering work to become a viable commercial product.
“We think that our system has potential,” Yu said. “The best system so far reported is 6.5 percent, but that’s not a single device. That’s two devices.”
By combining Solarmer’s device engineering expertise with Yu and Liang’s semiconducting material, they have been able to push the material’s efficiency even higher.
Via Science Daily