The School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences has been awarded £967,714 from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). The project led by Professor David Lidzey is part of the ‘Enduring Flight’ programme, and will involve spray-coating solar cells onto carbon-fibre surfaces, creating structural materials that are strong, light-weight, and can generate solar power. Carbon-fibre materials are already used in the construction of many aircraft, and if coated with a ‘solar skin’, they will be able generate solar electricity to help keep the aircraft in the air.
Described as "atmospheric satellites", these specialised, unmanned aircraft fly much closer to Earth and deliver superior image resolution, real-time data, and have lower operational costs. The team will specifically focus on craft designed to deploy data communication networks in remote regions to improve connectivity around the world. If successful, extending the flight time and reducing manufacturing costs of unmanned solar-powered vehicles could not only transform connectivity but be used for emergency search-and-rescue operations, wildfire tracking, and wildlife conservation.
Keeping an aircraft flying for extended periods requires continuous energy, but traditional silicon solar panels add a significant amount of weight. Because an unmanned aircraft's flight time depends significantly on the weight of its payload, adding heavy solar panels drastically reduces how long it can stay in the air. Silicon manufacturing is also energy-intensive and has a high carbon footprint. To solve this, researchers are adapting solar cell spray-coating methods first developed at Sheffield by Professor David Lidzey and his research group.
Made from Earth-abundant materials processed at much lower temperatures, the group's spray-coated perovskite solar cells have a power to weight ratio that is 30 times greater than traditional silicon. Rather than laminating traditional solar cells to an aircraft’s surface, the team will spray-coat solar cells onto carbon-fibre panels. When scaled-up, this should allow many parts of an aircraft to be coated without adding significant extra weight. Indeed, all weight savings can then be allocated to additional battery storage, allowing the aircraft to remain flying for longer.
While perovskite solar cells have exceptional power generation efficiency at a fraction of the weight, the material can be toxic and degrade rapidly when exposed to humidity, heat, and oxygen.
To protect the perovskite solar cells the team will work alongside the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Loughborough University to engineer new, ultra-thin protective coatings. By creating multilayer films based on glassy and polymeric materials, they aim to create a weather-proof barrier that blocks the ingress of moisture and oxygen without adding significant extra weight.
I’m delighted to be leading this ARIA funded project. My research group has been interested in developing solar technologies for some while, and this project now allows us to work with end-users and other technical specialists to optimise our processes and flight-test our devices. ARIA funded research programmes are like no other that I have ever worked on, and I’m excited to see what will come from our technology.
Professor David Lidzey
Flight-testing specialist Limosaero Ltd will integrate sample test devices supplied by Sheffield onto active solar-powered aircraft for field trials, allowing the team to study performance under real-world conditions.
While the immediate goal is keeping unmanned aircraft airborne, integrating solar cells directly onto structural materials could eventually find applications in many other areas. For example, the process could be adopted across other manufacturing industries, such as electric vehicle bodies, building roofs, and consumer products.
This project is part of the larger ARIA Enduring Atmospheric Platforms programme which is being led by Programme Director Rico Chandra, with the Enduring Atmospheric Platforms programme backed by £70 million over 3.5 years. 18 funded teams (Creators) are working on technologies to enable aircraft known as High Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) to operate reliably and cost-effectively in the stratosphere. These platforms will provide the physical backbone for next-generation advanced communications and a path to connectivity for underserved regions.