Metal substrate mounted flexible dye sensitised semiconductor solar cells

每天落在地球表面的太阳能比全人类27年所消耗的还多(即我们需求量的10,000倍)。然而，利用这一潜力并提供可靠和经济的无碳电力来源是一个不小的问题。基于夹在透明导电氧化物玻璃之间的敏化纳米二氧化钛的染料敏化半导体电池已经被开发出来，效率高达11%。目前阻碍染料敏化半导体电池的因素是成本、可制造性和耐用性。现代建筑环境中的低成本光伏(PV)涂料有望带来巨大的经济效益和环境效益，有可能与主流能源竞争。我们的新方法将在带钢上的聚合物涂层中研究染料敏化的二氧化钛光伏，提供一个大面积的太阳能集热器。我们的目标是突破低成本的光伏表面，使用具有成本效益的材料和快速/连续的卷材涂层制造。Corus Colors卷材涂装设施每年生产100万吨彩涂钢产品，其中三分之二最终用于屋顶。这相当于大约1亿平方米的有机涂层带钢(OCS)屋顶。英国的平均太阳辐射量为900千瓦时/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具有集成的光伏容量，将产生5400 GW.hr的电力。这相当于600兆瓦的常规发电能力或超过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非常大。在带钢上连续制造DSSC提出了重大的新的科学挑战。这些措施主要集中在四个关键领域：(1)在适合高速应用的金属衬底上开发具有强粘附性和活性敏化的纳米二氧化钛层，(2)开发一种适当的电解液，以消除挥发性成分和相关的密封问题，(3)优化收集效率和对电极设计，(4)材料的耐用性和兼容性，以确保在外部暴露时的合理使用寿命，尤其是开发合适的阻隔层来防止钢衬底的腐蚀。该项目汇集了染料敏化太阳能电池(Imperial)和光电化学(Bath)、材料沉积和表面化学(BANGOR)和钢涂层开发(斯旺西)领域的领先研究人员。这一雄心勃勃的计划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。这一整合的合作伙伴关系能够为建筑物的墙壁和屋顶提供经济高效的无源发电的独特解决方案，并为金属安装的DSC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; two thirds 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.