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”能源的最终来源。光伏电池直接将太阳能转化为电能，但是使用无机半导体材料的现有设备对于在太阳能农场中的广泛部署来说太昂贵，并且还可能包含环境敏感元件。目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，也没有显著的环境危害，但效率相对较低，工作寿命短得令人无法接受。萨斯喀彻温大学的申请人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染料敏化太阳能光伏电池技术相结合产生的原理证明。我们采用了独特的方法，即使用双吸收器-上转换器，其吸收太阳光并汇集（上转换）两个光激活分子的能量以产生一个高度激发的单重态，该单重态可以充当光伏中的电子供体。存在通过利用染料或其他物质的光子上转换来提高太阳能电池效率的极好机会，所述染料或其他物质在近红外中强烈吸收太阳光，从而从目前在常规DSC中浪费的太阳光谱段提取能量。同样重要的是，非常坚固的材料，如富勒烯和单壁碳纳米管，原则上可以用于实现相同的过程，从而提高有机太阳能电池的寿命。本申请在MW Canada Ltd.的支持下，要求资金主要用于支持将开发这些新的先进DSC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.