ID :
147271
Sun, 10/24/2010 - 18:29
Auther :

S. Korean researchers develop flexible, transparent plastic substrate


SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- A team of South Korean researchers Sunday said it has
developed a flexible and transparent plastic film substrate that can be used in
the production of next generation solar cells and displays.
The research team led by Bae Byeong-soo, a materials science professor at the
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said specially made
"glass cloth" was used to make the new film material.
The film, called a "rollable transparent glass-fabric reinforced composite film,"
or GFRHybrimer for short, was made by impregnated woven glass-fabric with a
photocurable sol-gel hybrid material. The process, Bae claimed, is cheap and
suitable for mass production.
The researcher said laboratory tests showed the material to be highly resistant
to heat expansion, which had been a problem for similar flexible substrates in
the past. The usual characteristics of plastic to expand and deform when subject
to heat made it difficult for these materials to replace glass as key materials
in solar cells and panels.
"The thermal expansion coefficient of the newly developed material was only
slightly inferior to glass," the KAIST professor said. He said with more work the
plastic substrates will be able to speed up commercial production of flexible
displays, solar cell panels and to make thin film transistors that can be used in
liquid crystal displays and active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes.
The development, meanwhile, received funding from the state-run National Research
Foundation of Korea and made the cover page of the latest issue of the
international Advanced Materials journal.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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