SOLAR cells built into clothing sound like a great way to charge gadgets while on the move, but for the idea to work the cells will have to be both flexible and cheap.
With that in mind, Harry Atwater and his team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have developed a bendy solar cell made from an array of microwires encased in a clear flexible polymer. It uses just 1 per cent of the expensive silicon needed by a regular solar cell with the same output, and is just 5 per cent of the size (Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat2635).
View the full article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527485.200-silicon-wire-forest-makes-wearable-solar-cells.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news