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世界总发电量的10,000倍。因此，太阳能是“绿色”能源的终极来源。光伏电池直接将太阳能转换为电能，但使用无机半导体材料的现有设备过于昂贵，无法在太阳能发电场广泛部署，而且还可能含有环境敏感元素。当前几代有机太阳能光伏电池(染料敏化太阳能电池，DSC和其他电池)的生产成本要低得多，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。萨斯喀彻温省大学的申请者小组已经证明了光伏响应将由非相干光子上转换过程与现有的染料敏化太阳能光伏电池技术相结合而产生。我们采取了一种独特的方法，使用双吸收上变频器，既吸收阳光，又汇集(上转换)两个光活化分子的能量，产生一个高度激发的单重态，可以作为光伏中的电子给体。通过对染料或其他物质使用光子上转换来提高太阳能电池的效率是一个极好的机会，该染料或其他物质在近红外强烈地吸收阳光，从而从目前在传统DSC中浪费的一段太阳光谱中提取能量。同样重要的是，富勒烯和单壁碳纳米管等极其坚固的材料原则上可以用于实现同样的过程，从而将有机太阳能电池的寿命提高数量级。该应用程序在MW Canada Ltd.的支持下，请求资金主要用于支持将进行这些新的、先进的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.