Improving the efficiency and longevity of sensitized solar photovoltaic cells using non-coherent photon upconversion with dual absorber/upconverters

全球太阳能供应量约为目前全球总发电量的1万倍。因此，太阳能代表了“绿色”能源的终极来源。光伏电池直接将太阳能转化为电能，但现有的使用无机半导体材料的设备过于昂贵，无法在太阳能农场广泛部署，而且还可能包含对环境敏感的元素。当前几代有机太阳能光伏电池（染料敏化太阳能电池，dsc等）的生产成本要低得多，并且不会对环境造成重大危害，但效率相对较低，工作寿命短得令人无法接受。萨斯喀彻温大学（University of Saskatchewan）的申请者小组已经证明了光电响应将由非相干光子上转换过程与现有染料敏化太阳能光伏电池技术相结合而产生。我们采用了一种独特的方法，使用双吸收-上转换器，既吸收阳光，又将两个光激活分子的能量池（上转换），产生一个高度激发的单重态，可以作为光伏中的电子供体。利用光子与染料或其他物质的上转换来提高太阳能电池的效率是一个极好的机会，这种染料或其他物质可以强烈地吸收近红外的阳光，从而从太阳光谱的一部分中提取能量，而这些能量目前被浪费在传统的dsc中。同样重要的是，极其坚固的材料，如富勒烯和单壁碳纳米管，原则上可以用来实现相同的过程，从而提高有机太阳能电池的寿命数量级。在MW加拿大有限公司的支持下，该申请要求资金主要用于支持将开展这些新型先进dsc开发的人员。

The global supply of solar energyamounts to about 10,000 times the world's total current combined electrical energy generation capacity. Solar energy therefore represents the ultimate source of "green" power. Photovoltaic cells directly convert solar energy to electrical energy, but existing devices using inorganic semiconductor materials are too expensive for widespread deployment in solar energy farms and can also contain environmentally sensitive elements. The current generations of organic solar photovoltaic cells (dye-sensitized solar cells, DSCs, and others) are much less expensive to produce and present no significant environmental hazard, but are relatively inefficient and have an unacceptably short working lifespan. The University of Saskatchewan group of applicants has demonstrated proof-of-principle that a photovoltaic response will result from the process of non-coherent photon upconversion in combination with existing dye-sensitized solar PV cell technology. We have taken the unique approach of using a dual absorber-upconverter that both absorbs sunlight and pools (upconverts) the energy of two light-activated molecules to produce one highly excited singlet state that can act as the electron donor in the photovoltaic. An excellent opportunity exists to improve solar cell efficiency by using photon upconversion with a dye or other substance that absorbs sunlight strongly in the near infrared and thereby extracts the energy from a segment of the solar spectrum that is currently wasted in conventional DSCs. Of equal importance, extremely robust materials such as fullerenes and single-walled carbon nanotubes may, in principle, be used to effect the same process, thereby improving organic solar cell longevity by orders of magnitude. This application, with the support of MW Canada Ltd., requests funding primarily to support the personnel who will carry out the development of these new, advanced DSCs.