Future of Solar Panels: S. Korean Scientists Developed Panels 100 Times Thinner Than A Human Hair

A team of researchers from South Korea has recently developed solar panels for wearable electronics that is so flexible and thin can be wrapped around the frame of pair of glass.

The solar panels, as said by the research-team, are thinner than a strand of hair. The panels will be, as claimed by the south Korean scientists, the ultra thin solar cells are hundred times thinner than standard solar panels and three to four times thinner than most of the slimmest solar cells currently available.

“Less fragile under bending, but perform similarly or even slightly better to panels 3.5 micrometers across,” said Professor Jongho Lee, who is also leading the research. He added that the flexible solar panel is so thin that can be wrapped around a pencil or in an object that is 1.4 mm thin.

Scientists said that the ultra thin, flexible solar panel is made using a semiconductor, gallium arsenide.

‘They were then stamped on to a flexible material, avoiding the need for an adhesive that would add to its thickness. The cells were “cold-welded” to an electrode,’ the study said.