A team of researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has developed a nanoscale device they say could improve the performance of PV systems by preventing the loss of solar energy before it can be utilised.
The researchers said the mechanism is designed to capture photons of low-energy infrared and red light – wavelengths that carry less energy and are typically wasted in conventional PV cells – and upconvert them into higher-energy visible light that can be put to practical use.
An upconversion layer placed behind a solar cell can convert otherwise wasted infrared photons into higher energy visible light that can be reflected back into the solar cell to boost its efficiency. The focus has been on commercially viable solid-state upconverters but these have been plagued by efficiency losses.
The team from the UNSW science faculty has now devised a strategy to overcome that energy loss, fabricating a “liquid triplet fusion medium” that behaves as a solid on excitonic timescales. This material fills the pores of an alumina nano-scaffold to which sensitiser molecules are stuck, preventing the back transfer that plagues solid-state systems.
Study Lead Author and UNSW Researcher Dr Thilini Ishwara said the mechanism allowed the device to achieve photon conversion efficiencies of 8.2%, among the strongest reported for this type of architecture.
“This work demonstrates a big step forward,” she said. “Achieving high efficiencies in films is difficult in these ultrathin molecular systems – good light absorption is needed and energy loss needs to be minimised.”
Ishwara said the development could have wide-ranging implications for industries looking to recover or reuse wasted infrared light, including solar energy where large amounts of low-energy light pass straight through conventional silicon cells unused.
“Converting some of that light into visible wavelengths could improve overall performance,” the researchers said, adding that the approach may also be relevant to infrared sensing, photocatalysis, optical communications and next-generation additive manufacturing technologies such as volumetric 3D printing.
One of the key aspects of the research is that the system operates in a solid-state structure. This makes it compatible with semiconductor-style manufacturing, increasing its commercial viability compared to earlier liquid-based approaches.
‘We are keen to commercialise our technology,” Ishwara said.
The research paper, Structural exciton localization drives efficient solid-state sensitized triplet fusion upconversion, is published in Nature Photonics.
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