A recent study by Stanford University researchers found that heating metal oxides such as rust can improve the conversion efficiency and energy storage efficiency of specific solar cells. This discovery was published in the Journal of Energy and Environmental Sciences. Different from existing silicon solar cells, such solar cells use metal oxide instead of silicon to convert photons into electrons and then use electrons to decompose water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Silicon solar cells can't store electrical energy. They are not "batteries" in the conventional sense. However, if they can generate electricity from daylight during the day, store energy in ways that decompose water molecules, and then "recompose" hydrogen and oxygen in some way at night, To release energy, it will be ideal.
The researchers at Stanford University tested three metal oxides at different temperatures: bismuth vanadate, titanium oxide, and iron oxide. The results were more than expected: When the temperature rises, the rate of electrons passing through these three oxides increases. The amount of hydrogen and oxygen produced increases accordingly. With the heating of metal oxides with sunlight, the hydrogen produced can be doubled.
Of the three metal oxides, the effect of heating yttrium vanadate is most pronounced. Researchers speculate that heating other metal oxides may be equally effective, and follow-up studies will test more materials.
Stanford University Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Mou Zongyang presided over the study. He and his colleagues believe that this research breakthrough may make it possible for solar cells to store energy on a large scale and change the way humans produce, store, and consume energy.
Miao Zongyang said: "The comprehensive use of heat and sunlight, and metal oxides as conversion materials, with the decomposition of water molecules, efficient storage of inexhaustible energy of the sun, can supply energy on demand."
The reason why metal oxides are not used to make solar cells at this stage is because the photoelectric conversion efficiency is lower than silicon, especially in the visible light and ultraviolet range. However, Mou Zongyang introduced that silicon solar cells can only use a relatively small part of the energy carried by sunlight.
Previously, researchers generally believed that metal oxide solar cells, like silicon solar cells, have lower conversion efficiency at higher temperatures. This study not only eliminates this "misunderstanding" but also leads to the opposite conclusion. The cost of metal oxides is much lower than that of silicon, and the sources are abundant, the processing is simple, and the application prospects are worth looking forward to.
Mou Zongyang envisaged that the hydrogen obtained by dissolving water molecules could be directly used as fuel, for example, to provide power for automobiles, and “emissions†would be water. Starting from sunlight and finally water, without increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, is a "carbon balance cycle."
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