Flexible, Cost-effective and Efficient LED Lighting Panels and Solar Cells

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The project set out to find innovative solutions and develop new technologies to reduce the manufacturing costs of LED lighting panels, solar cells, and other organic electronic devices. Its most important contribution is the development and scaling up of manufacturing processes for new barrier materials and transparent electrodes that are used in advanced flexible optoelectronics.

Transparent electrodes to reduce cost and improve efficiency

Three electrodes-on-flexible substrates, using thin silver, metal fibers, or carbon nanotubes, are either anticipated to start production this year or are already being developed on a commercial scale. Tests were carried out on the new electrodes with different types of optoelectronic devices, using rolls measuring 100 metres in length. The use of such roll-to-roll (R2R) processing is comparable to the methods used for newspaper printing. The new electrodes produced through this method have demonstrated that they are suitable for complex solar cells and light sources.

Crucially the innovative processing methods hold the potential to make solar cells and light sources less expensive in the future. This would bring benefits to consumers but would also facilitate the growth of more environmentally friendly lighting solutions, thus contributing to the European Union’s ambitious climate change objectives.

The electrodes developed by the project are technically as good as the electrodes currently used by the lighting industry that are made indium tin oxide. However, they are cheaper to produce and do not depend on the use of indium. Importantly this does not compromise effectiveness, as the new electrodes are able support a stable light source over a wide area and attain an efficiency of 25 lumens/W. This is comparable to the relatively slower sheet-to-sheet manufacturing process used to produce similar devices.

Additionally, the project consortium also devised new techniques to ensure that the new electrodes are able to operate even when they are bent repeatedly, a test that has the potential to become an industry standard.
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