1. Flexible solar panels are another category of foldable devices receiving lots of scientific attention. And while many advances are being made, researchers have been having a challenging time making the panels fully foldable (repeatedly bend without breaking) until now.
2. Engineers at Korea’s Pusan National University created fully foldable prototype solar cells. Such panels would simplify storage and transportation and integration into everyday devices like cars, windows, phones, and clothing.
3. While flexible solar cells do exist, their bend is limited, like a card; If they bend any further, they break. A genuinely efficient foldable conductor can withstand the pressure of turning within a tiny radius while maintaining its integrity and function. That’s what the Korean engineers found.
4. Unlike merely flexible electronics, foldable devices are subject to much harsher deformations, with folding radii as small as 0.5 mm. This is not possible with conventional ultra-thin glass substrates and metal oxide transparent conductors, which can be made flexible but never fully foldable.
