Scientists from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) they succeeded in increasing the energy conversion efficiency of photosensitive pigment photovoltaic cells to over 15% in direct sunlight and over 30% in ambient light. This finding represents a significant advance that can be translated into the fabrication of devices and panels. solar energy much more efficient.
this dye sensitive solar cells Also known as Graetzel cells (DSC), it is a type of photovoltaic cell that generates electricity and converts light energy into electrical energy on a photo-electro-chemical principle. Now, a research team at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne has made a major breakthrough using specially designed photosensitive dye molecules that can collect light from the visible light spectrum when combined.
Such cells stand out with features such as being able to be installed practically anywhere. A the window of a building, the windows of a car, or even the screen of a laptop. In addition, the production process using traditional roll printing techniques provides a low cost process.
But until now, this technology has faced problems such as the use of liquid electrolyte, which has stability problems with temperature changes. At very low temperatures the electrolyte can freeze so that electrons cannot move to the conduction bands, having lower efficiency and potentially permanently damaging the cell.
New dye sensitization method
The study, titled ‘Hydroxamic acid preadsorption increases the efficiency of cosensitized solar cells’, published by the team from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, has been published in the scientific journal. Nature and explains the binding mode of two photosensitive dye molecules new design that improves photovoltaic performance.
The technique consists pre-adsorb a monolayer A derivative of hydroxamic acid on the surface of nanocrystalline mesoporous titanium dioxide. This is something that allows the adsorption of the two sensitizers to slow down and a densely packed, well-ordered sensitizer layer to form on the surface of the titanium dioxide.
Thanks to this invention, the team was able to develop DSC cells with 15.2% power conversion efficiency for the first time under standard spherical simulated sunlight. In addition, its long-term operational stability has been tested for 500 hours.
A really interesting aspect of this progress is the increase of active area to 2.8 square centimeters and with it power conversion efficiency increased from 28.4% to 30.2% arcalso in a wide range of ambient light intensities combined with exceptional stability.
This is an energy conversion record that will allow it to surpass those achieved by conventional photovoltaic systems. until date.
The new technology should now demonstrate its potential in large-scale production to offer an alternative to using surfaces and generating electricity in a wide variety of environments.
Reference work: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05460-z
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