New Barrier Encapsulation for Printed Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Devices

The operational durability of flexible batteries and flexible solar cells is crucial for practical applications such as power for remote communities. To achieve this requires devices to be packaged using materials that provide an ultrahigh barrier to the ingress of atmospheric oxygen and water vapour which can otherwise lead to device degradation.

Ultrahigh barrier materials are one of the most expensive components of completed devices due to their manufacturing complexity. So, producing inexpensive, flexible, transparent barrier packaging films remains a key challenge for commercialisation of emerging printed flexible battery and solar cell technologies.

Supported by funding from the Australia-India Strategic Fund (AISRF), our team collaborated on a project with an Indian Institute of Science team based in Bangalore (2019-2022) to investigate new low-cost, high-performance barrier films using CSIRO’s roll-to-roll coating capabilities, together with development of novel encapsulation protocols.

Next steps include confirmation of long-term performance of the new barrier materials and their application to flexible devices consisting of flexible printed batteries integrated with printed solar panels.

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