Engineering electrochemical devices: Photosynthetic solar cells and high power capacitors

工程电化学器件：光合太阳能电池和高功率电容器

• 批准号: 261943-2013
• 负责人: Madden, John
• 金额: $ 2.55万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=594680
• 关键词: Engineering; electrochemical; devices; Photosynthetic; solar

Electrochemically active materials will be investigated that aim to provide low cost solar energy harvesting - including built-in energy storage, as well as high power supercapacitors. Photosynthetic protein complexes, also known as reaction centres, absorb light and separate electrical charge. The process is performed with near perfect quantum efficiency (almost every photon is converted to charge). The objective is to create solar cells that employ these proteins, or their synthetic analogs, to generate electrical energy with reasonable power conversion efficiency. In principle -based on the electronic states available in reaction centres - ultimate power conversion efficiencies of as high as 27.5 % are possible (with genetic modification). Previous work has demonstrated generation using photoelectrochemical configurations very similar to dye-sensitized solar cells. We aim to overcome serious challenges that have led to efficiencies well below 1 % including the lack of selectively of electrodes and poor light absorption. Our group has proposed unique implementation to overcome these challenges. A novel cell design enables good light absorption and built-in energy storage. A key reason for poor performance are lack of selectivity of electrodes resulting in poor charge transfer kinetics. This will be overcome by employing semiconductor electrodes, in which band positioning favours charge transfer from one mediator and restricts that of the other. With these and other modifications we hope to produce photo-electrochemical cells that demonstrate power conversion efficiencies in excess of 10 %, and store energy over a period of hours. In the longer term it is hoped that the approach will lead to a commercially relevant and environmentally friendly method of producing electrical energy from sunlight.

电化学活性材料将被研究，旨在提供低成本的太阳能收集-包括内置的能量存储，以及高功率超级电容器。光合作用蛋白质复合物，也称为反应中心，吸收光并分离电荷。该过程以近乎完美的量子效率进行（几乎每个光子都被转换为电荷）。其目标是创造使用这些蛋白质或其合成类似物的太阳能电池，以合理的功率转换效率产生电能。原则上，基于反应中心中可用的电子状态，高达27.5%的最终功率转换效率是可能的（通过基因改造）。以前的工作已经证明了使用光电化学配置非常类似于染料敏化太阳能电池的发电。我们的目标是克服导致效率远低于1%的严重挑战，包括缺乏电极的选择性和光吸收差。我们小组提出了独特的实施方案，以克服这些挑战。一种新颖的电池设计能够实现良好的光吸收和内置能量存储。性能差的一个关键原因是缺乏电极的选择性，导致差的电荷转移动力学。这将通过采用半导体电极来克服，其中能带定位有利于从一个介体转移电荷并限制另一个介体。通过这些和其他修改，我们希望生产出光电化学电池，其功率转换效率超过10%，并在数小时内储存能量。从长远来看，人们希望这种方法将导致一种商业上相关的和环境友好的方法，从阳光中产生电能。