Solar cells, smartphones, high-end TVs and games consoles could all potentially benefit from the technology
(Picture: Pexels)It is well known that humans perk up with a bit of coffee and it turns out that organic semiconductors – an integral part of many electronic devices – could benefit as well.
Not that spilling your coffee on your laptop does any good as many of us have discovered. Instead, it’s caffeic acid – an ingredient that naturally occurs in coffee – that is beneficial to performance.
Researchers from Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology institute found that adding a thin layer of the compound to the surface of an electrode boosted the current flow by up to 100 times.
That’s a huge increase and comes from the effect of caffeic acid on the molecules, which spontaneously line up on the surface of the organic semiconductor, reducing resistance to the current’s flow.
This could be a big boost to the efficiency of organic semiconductor devices, such as organic solar cells, as well as OLED screens found in high-end televisions, plenty of smartphones and a handful of game consoles. The improvement could lead to improvements in battery life in portable devices with such a screen built in.
But the efficiency of this new technique isn’t just a boon in its own right. The great promise of caffeic acid means that, in future, producers of organic semiconductor devices can rely on this naturally occurring plant-based compound rather than the unsustainable chemicals that are currently used for electrode modification layers.
Beyond sustainability, caffeic acid also has another big advantage over other chemicals: it reduces the environmental damage associated with disposal at the end of a product’s life. Existing chemicals, the researchers said, “may adversely affect aquatic organisms when organic semiconductor devices are disposed of in landfills”.
While this discovery won’t make the massive and growing problem of e-waste go away, it should at least make our current flawed solution a little less damaging to the environment.
