Seattle, WA, USA--(Jobwerx News)--Konarka and Solaris Nanosciences join to enhance light activated power plastics and metal structures with solar cells.

Joint Research Program: Konarka and Solaris Nanosciences are conducting a joint research program to evaluate the performance and efficiency of solar cells made with Konarka's light activated power plastic and Solaris' NanoAntenna materials.

The companies will evaluate the performance and efficiency of solar cells made with Konarka's light-activated power plastic and Solaris' metal structures.

Konarka Technologies, Inc., is an innovator in developing and commercializing power plastics that convert light to energy, and Solaris Nanosciences is a developer and manufacturer of advanced nanomaterials for devices that harvest light for a variety of applications.

Solaris' materials are nanoscale metallic structures that act as "nano-antennas" for light-sensitive molecules, concentrating, absorbing and potentially transferring light more efficiently. The NanoAntenna will serve as an additive to Konarka's light sensitizing materials. Since the structure is much smaller than the wavelength of light, it concentrates, absorbs and potentially transfers the light more efficiently, resulting in enhanced energy conversion efficiencies.

Solaris is pursuing the application of its scalable, consumable nano-antenna platform to provide unique benefits to several large industry sectors. The company is pursuing three major applications of its nano-antenna platform technology: advanced materials for photovoltaics, additives for liquid crystal displays and nanostructures for bio-medical applications.

One of Konarka's stated goals is to push photovoltaic science as far forward as possible, and this program with Solaris is another way for the company to make that happen. It is also part of Konarka's ongoing efforts to develop a variety chemistries for its light-activated power plastics, where each chemistry is tuned to a specific purpose, enabling customers to choose the performance that best suits the power requirements of their devices, systems or structures.

"Konarka's solutions are chemistry-agnostic. We believe in finding the best possible combination of materials to create power plastic that meets the performance needed for a specific application, and this project with Solaris holds promise", said Russell Gaudiana, Ph.D., vice president of research and development at Konarka.

"Through our proprietary nanotechnology, we uniquely design the optical properties of our NanoAntenna(tm) materials. Our nano-antennas enhance the absorption of the solar spectrum much like a conventional antenna enhances the reception of a radio receiver," said Robert Afzal, vice president of research and development, Solaris Nanosciences. "This leads to high absorption in thinner structures with highly favorable electrical properties possibly resulting in higher efficiencies."

This new program complements Konarka's ongoing efforts to develop a variety of coat-able and printable chemistries for its light activated power plastic. Each chemistry can be tuned to a specific purpose, enabling customers to choose the performance that best suits the power requirements of their devices, systems or structures.

Konarka is the leading developer of polymer photovoltaic products that provide a source of renewable power in a variety of form factors for commercial, industrial, government and consumer applications. Konarka's photovoltaic nanotechnology is focused on delivering lightweight, flexible, scalable and manufacturable products.

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Special thanks to Hilary Ives of BroadPR - hilary@broadpr.com