An attempt for making a new photoelectric conversion element which has both pigment sensitizing function and light-energy accumulation functions

本课题的最终目的是制作具有高效储能功能的光化学电池。为了证明这种电池，研究人员一直在寻找最合适的材料和建立精细结构制造技术。随着研究的主题，它已被发现，氧化钨凝胶变得比预期更加浑浊。样品的浊度是指入射光被多重光散射阻碍而不能穿透到样品中。为了提高光电转换效率，人们认为电解质和基体材料之间需要大的界面面积，因此，为了实现大的界面面积，研究人员采用了N-异丙基丙烯酰胺/丙烯酸钠共聚物凝胶，因为已知这种材料具有纳米级的海岛结构。然而，继续进行关于该主题的研究，已经发现，在某些组成下，基底材料在该区域中也变得浑浊。这些混浊现象通常会导致有助于光电转换的光强度的显著降低，这对本研究中针对的光电器件的功能产生了相当大的不良影响。因此，在观察到这些现象后，研究人员通过小角X射线散射测量和拉曼散射测量等多种方法阐明了浊度的影响和来源。因此，研究人员计划通过充分利用本研究中获得的实验结果来建立降低浊度的技术，并实现具有高效储能功能的光化学电池。

The final purpose of this subject is making a photochemical cell with high-efficiency energy-storage functionality. In order to demonstrate such a cell, the investigators have been seeking for the most suitable material and establishing the technology of fine structure fabrication. With studying the subject, it has been found that the tungsten oxide gel becomes more turbid than expected. The turbidity of the specimen means that incident light is hindered from penetrate into the specimen by the multiple light scattering. For increasing the efficiency of the photoelectric conversion, the large boundary area has been thought to be necessary between the electrolyte and the base material, therefore, in order to actualize the large interfacial area, the investigators have adopted an N-isoprpyl acryl amide/sodium acrylate co-polymer gel because this material is known to have a nano-scale sea-and-island structure. However, proceeding with the study on this subject, it has been found that the base material also becomes turbid in the area at certain compositions. These turbidity phenomena commonly induce considerable a decrease in the light intensity which contribute to a photoelectric conversion, which introduce the considerable bad influences upon the functionality of the photoelectric device aiming at in the present study. Therefore, after observing these phenomena, the researchers have been elucidated the effect and origin of the turbidities by many methods such as small angle X-ray scattering measurements and Raman scattering measurements. Henceforth, the researchers plan to establish the technique for reducing the turbidity by making the most use of the experimental results obtained in the present study and realize the photochemical cell with high-efficiency energy-storage functionality.