Energies of the future 34 Matter and materials Faced with the inevitable decline of fossil fuels and the complexity of managing waste from the nuclear industry, scientists are focusing their research on the sustainable production of hydrogen and the design of safer, cleaner nuclear reactors to meet today’s challenges. In the medium term, flexible plastic photovoltaic cells could complement conventional silicon solar cells like these. An additive for plastic photovoltaic cells The advantage of organic photovoltaic cells is that they can be used on flexible supports. Now, chemists from two laboratories have shown that they can be made more efficient without resorting to specific heat treatment. A copolymer additive can be added to the active layer as it is developed, so as to optimize the morphology of the mixture in this layer. This could help make plastic cells a viable alternative to their silicon counterparts. Advanced Materials March 2012 online A year at CNRS 2012
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