Spray-on solar cells are tiniest yet
Some of the tiniest solar cells ever built have been successfully tested as a power source for even tinier microscopic machines, reports azonano.com.
The cells, each one about a quarter the size of a lowercase “o” in a standard 12-point font, were made of an organic polymer and were joined together in an experiment aimed at proving their ability to power tiny devices that can be used to detect chemical leaks and for other applications, says Xiaomei Jiang, who led the research at the University of South Florida.
“I think these materials have a lot more potential than traditional silicon,” says Jiang. “They could be sprayed on any surface that is exposed to sunlight — a uniform, a car, a house.”