Scientists have developed a new hybrid, solar-energy system that harnesses the full spectrum of the sun’s radiation by pairing a photovoltaic cell with polymer films. The films convert the light that goes unused by the solar cell into heat and then converts the heat into electricity. They report on their device, which produces a voltage more than five times higher than other hybrid systems, in the journal ACS Nano.
Solar cells today are getting better at converting sunlight to electricity, but commercial panels still harvest only part of the radiation they’re exposed to. Scientists are working to change this using various methods. One approach is to hybridize solar cells with different materials to capture more of the sun’s energy. Eunkyoung Kim and colleagues turned to a clear, conductive polymer known as PEDOT to try to accomplish this.
The researchers layered a dye-sensitized solar cell on top of a PEDOT film, which heats up in response to light. Below that, they added a pyroelectric thin film and a thermoelectric device, both of which convert heat into electricity. The efficiency of all components working together was more than 20 percent higher than the solar cell alone. With that boost, the system could operate an LED lamp and an electrochromic display.
The Latest on: Hybrid solar cell
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The Latest on: Hybrid solar cell
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The new solar cell was presented in the paper Four-Terminal ... tandem photoelectrochemical cell powered by sunlight, and a new hybrid catalyst system to enhance the selectivity toward C2 products.
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- Roll-to-roll-fabricated hybrid perovskite solar cells reach record efficiencieson April 4, 2024 at 5:00 pm
On a roll: The roll-to-roll printing technique used to produce hybrid perovskite solar panels with efficiencies of 11% and an area of up to 50 cm2. (Courtesy: D Vak) Large-area solar cells made from ...
- Solar cells get flexibleon March 10, 2024 at 4:37 pm
The inappropriately named clean rooms require high temperatures in the production of silicon photovoltaics and modern hybrid solar cells, in particular, require a cocktail of toxic chemicals ...
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