Sustainable Chemistry Based on Wood

Example of a boron-containing polymer based on furan. (Image: Maximilian Fest / Universität Würzburg) 02/15/2022 - Producing materials for solar cells, light-emitting diodes and other organic electronics applications as sustainably as possible: A team from Würzburg's Faculty of Chemistry is working on this. Some hikers carry a small solar power plant with them: a foil is attached to their backpack that converts sunlight into electricity. This allows them to charge their mobile phone while on the move. Flexible, thin and lightweight solar panels can also be attached to outdoor clothing or glued to curved surfaces - such as the roofs of mobile homes. Such solar cells capture the sun's energy not with crystalline silicon, but with special organic materials. Unfortunately, these materials have so far been made from crude oil or natural gas - and that is not in the spirit of sustainability.