Conductive Ink Energizes Solar Use for Soldiers

  • Published
  • By Heyward Burnett
  • Materials & Manufacturing
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Check your pockets--you just might be sporting a novel technology that boosts your personal capacity to harvest solar energy power for your critical communication, navigation/location-finding, and other portable--and in some cases, wearable--devices. The main ingredient of this emergent capability is "conductive ink," a substance enabling the printing of organic photovoltaic solar cell panels on very thin and flexible surfaces, such as those of a tent or a soldier's uniform. Using this special ink as a basis, Plextronics, Inc., created Plexcore®, the solar cell panel technology that individuals may indeed carry or wear and which has since won best-in-class recognition for unmatched efficiency. Key outcomes of this discovery-oriented effort include significantly lower costs and a reduced logistical footprint for military operations. 

It was through an earlier Air Force Research Laboratory and industry collaboration that the invaluable ink originally came to fruition. The Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center developed it using funds provided by AFRL through congressional contract. The AFRL/PNCC partnership, which continues today, employs a roadmap to help identify what technologies the lab needs and has an interest in funding. It was this ongoing agreement that ultimately led to Plextronics' successful development of Plexcore.

Flexible and easily made semitransparent, the Plexcore material enables solar cells to be form-fitted to uniforms or printed onto thin films for incorporation into tents. Once integrated in this fashion, the technology readily powers a range of portable personal devices (e.g., Global Positioning System). One of Plexcore's important advantages over conventional, silicon-based solar cell panels is its substantially reduced cost: about $50/m2 for Plexcore panels versus $500/m2 for silicon-based products. Plexcore also takes less time and energy to manufacture than comparable OPV materials. While the technology shows immediate promise for a number of commercial applications (e.g., thin solar batteries for cell phones, radios, and similar gadgets), further research could unearth expanded uses supporting military and private interests alike. 

All military and commercial operations demand highly efficient, and often portable, power sources--hence the appeal of harnessing natural sunlight. Moreover, in terms of realizing practical alternative energy, solar power (in conjunction with low-cost manufacturing of printed electronics) could prove an economical, environmentally compatible solution to current and future energy challenges. From all standpoints, the Plextronics technology marks a giant step towards eliminating the product cost, size, and weight constraints heretofore constraining the use of solar cell technology in the battlefield environment.