In recent years, researchers have been working to develop more effective solar technologies and environmentally friendly battery designs. Solar cells, devices that can store the energy collected by solar cells or photovoltaic (PV) systems, are among the increasingly sustainable energy alternatives.
Sustainable integrated solar cell design was developed by Prof. It was recently introduced by a research team led by Bettina Lotsch. It is based on minerals that are naturally abundant on Earth. As described in a report published in Energy & Environmental Science, their concept is based on a bifunctional carbon nitride (K-PHI) photoanode that can both absorb light and store electrical charge.
Solar Cell Research
According to Andreas Gouder, co-author of the study, “The solar cell research field is still young and as a result very diverse in terms of concepts and ideas with different levels of integration.” Integration means combining two functions in one device. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, such as using a bifunctional electrode material as done here, or incorporating a photoactive electrode into a battery. However, integration can also have an impact on load transfer.
Charging of Solar Cells
Essentially, one of the photogenerated charge carriers has to be moved from the photoactive electrode to another "counter" electrode when charging batteries with light. This process takes place via an external wire in most solar cells produced to date, which are based on solid electrodes.
prof. The aim of Lotsch, Gouder and their partners was to develop a battery system where this process happens internally. To achieve this, they included a multipurpose separator in their battery that separates the two electrodes.
In addition to using bifunctional, inexpensive, soil-abundant 2D polymeric carbon nitrides (i.e., carbon nitride modification "K-PHI") as photoanodes for solar cells for the first time, the study is also credited with creating a proof-of-concept device using this new, more integrated mechanism. He said he was motivated. Our team first studied the usefulness of K-PHI as a solar cell anode in 2018 and later filed a patent on it in 2019.
The researchers' battery consists of two electrodes (anode and cathode) with a separator between them. Made of K-PHI, the anode is responsible for light absorption. Photogenerated holes are transported to the organic conductive polymer cathode, while photogenerated electrons are stored directly in K-PHI.
According to Gouder, this is accomplished with an external wire in “almost all other comparable indoor solar cell devices.” “In this case, a hole transport layer performs the internal, discriminating and corrected transfer mechanism. While this device could theoretically be used as a standard solar cell or battery, a variety of light-assisted modes become available, all of which we have extensively studied as part of this study.
Dr. Lotsch, Gouder, and colleagues evaluated the performance of solar cells through a series of tests and found that it showed extremely promising results. The charging process of a solar cell or both the charging and discharging processes can be supported by sunlight. The scientists discovered that when their method was used for both charging and discharging, the recovered energy increased significantly by 94,1% compared to when the battery was operated in the dark like typical batteries.
This team's integrated solar cell architecture may motivate other groups to develop sustainable batteries using similar separators or carbon nitride photoanodes. Meanwhile, the researchers want to advance the energy efficiency of their technology and encourage commercialization.
Gouder continued: “Although the efficiency of photocharging is equivalent to that of similar photoanode-based solar cell devices, it lags behind more traditional two-device systems consisting of a solar cell and a battery. To compete with state-of-the-art solar cells, installing it in a traditional solar park requires specifically upgrading the photocurrent. The device's translucent nature could allow it to be used where conventional solar cells cannot be used, among other conceivable areas of application. (eg windows). In addition, since charge storage takes place directly on the device, it works in a very decentralized way and does not need a charge storage infrastructure as in different micro-devices.
Source: techxplore
Günceleme: 29/03/2023 18:44