Metal substrate mounted flexible dye sensitised semiconductor solar cells

每天落在地球表面的太阳能比整个人类27年消耗的还要多（即10000倍于我们的需求）。然而，利用这一潜力并提供可靠且经济的无碳电力来源是一个不容忽视的问题。基于敏化纳米晶二氧化钛夹在透明导电氧化玻璃之间的染料敏化半导体电池（DSSCs）已被开发出来，效率高达11%。目前DSSCs的障碍是成本、可制造性和耐用性。低成本的光伏涂料在现代建筑环境中具有巨大的经济/环境效益，有可能与主流能源相竞争。我们的新方法将研究带钢聚合物涂层中染料敏化二氧化钛光伏电池，提供大面积太阳能集热器。我们的目标是突破低成本PV表面，使用具有成本效益的材料和快速/连续的线圈涂层制造。科力斯彩钢卷材涂装设备年产彩涂钢产品100万吨；？ 其中的一部分最终被安置在屋顶上。这相当于大约1亿平方米的有机涂层带钢（OCS）屋顶。英国太阳辐照的平均量为900千瓦小时/平方米/年。如果光伏涂层的光电效率为6%，1亿平方米的光伏涂层屋顶集成光伏容量将产生5400吉瓦。h的电。这相当于600兆瓦的传统电力容量或超过2400兆瓦的可再生能源，如陆上风力发电。考虑到英国每年增加的屋顶数量，大规模光伏能源生产的机会是非常重要的。在带钢上连续制备DSSC提出了新的重大科学挑战。这些措施大致涉及四个关键领域：(1)在适合高速应用的金属基板上开发强附着力和主动敏化的纳米结构二氧化钛层；(2)开发一种合适的电解质，消除挥发性成分和相关的密封问题；(3)优化收集效率和反电极设计；(4)材料的耐久性和兼容性，以确保在外部暴露下的合理使用寿命。特别包括开发合适的屏障层以防止钢基板的腐蚀。该项目汇集了染料敏化太阳能电池（帝国大学）、光电化学（巴斯大学）、材料沉积和表面化学（班戈大学）以及钢铁涂层开发（斯旺西大学）领域的顶尖研究人员。这一雄心勃勃的计划取得成功的关键是世界第二大卷材涂层材料生产商Corus Colors的支持。该合作伙伴有能力提供独特的解决方案，以经济有效地从建筑物的墙壁和屋顶进行被动发电，并为金属安装的DSSCs的基本光电化学提供新颖的机械见解。

More solar energy falls on the Earth's surface every day than the whole of humankind would consume in 27 years (i.e. 10,000 times our needs). To harness this potential and provide a reliable and economic carbon free source of electricity is however a non trivial problem. Dye sensitised semiconductor cells (DSSCs) based on sensitised nanocrystalline titania sandwiched between transparent conducting oxide glass have been developed with efficiencies of up to 11%.The current barriers to DSSCs are cost, manufacturability and durability. Low cost photovoltaic (PV) coatings in the modern built environment promise great financial/environmental benefits, potentially competing with mainstream energy sources. Our novel approach will study dye-sensitised titania photovoltaics in polymer coatings on strip steel, providing a large area solar collector. Our aim is breakthrough low cost PV surfaces, using cost effective materials and rapid/continuous coil coating manufacturing. Corus Colors coil coating facilities produce 1,000,000 T/yr of painted steel products; ? of which ends up on roofs. This equates to approximately 100 million m2 of organic coated strip steel (OCS) roofs. The average amount of UK solar irradiation is 900 kW.hr/m2/yr. If the light-to-electricity efficiency of the PV coating is 6%, 100 million m2 of PV coated roofs with an integrated photovoltaic capacity would produce 5400 GW.hr of electricity. This equates to 600 MW of conventional power capacity or over 2400 MW of a renewable source such as onshore wind power. Considering that this amount of roofing is added to the UK annually, the opportunity for large scale PV energy production is very significant. The continuous fabrication of DSSC's on strip steel raises significant new scientific challenges. These are broadly in four key areas: (1) developing strongly adherent and active sensitised nanostructured titania layers on metal substrates suitable for high speed application, (2) developing a suitable electrolyte which eliminates volatile components and associated sealing issues, (3) optimising collection efficiency and counter electrode design and (4) durability and compatibility of materials to ensure a reasonable operational life in external exposure, including in particular the development of suitable barrier layers to prevent corrosion of the steel substrate. The project brings together leading researchers in the field of dye sensitised solar cells (Imperial) and photoelectrochemistry (Bath), materials deposition and surface chemistry (Bangor) and steel coating development (Swansea). Critical to the success of this ambitious programme is the support of the World's second largest producer of coil coated materials, Corus Colors. The assembled partnership has the capability to deliver a unique solution to cost-effective passive generation of electricity from the walls and roofs of buildings and provide novel mechanistic insights into the fundamental photoelectrochemistry of metal mounted DSSCs.