Mar. 23, 2005 — Konarka Technologies Inc. of Lowell, Mass., and Evident Technologies of Troy, N.Y., announced that they are collaborating on research to increase the sensitivity of plastic solar cells to a wider range of the light spectrum.

The companies will use Konarka’s proprietary polymers and Evident’s quantum dots to try to develop novel materials to improve the performance of so-called “power plastic” — photovoltaic material made using polymers and polymer manufacturing processes rather than traditional photovoltaic semiconductors.

The project is in keeping with both companies’ stated missions to offer high-efficiency, low-cost materials in new form factors. Konarka says the program complements its efforts to develop different coatable and printable chemistries for light-activated power plastic, according to a news release. 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.