Institute of New Energy Technology, College of Information Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, PR China.
Dalton Trans. 2019 Jan 15;48(3):799-805. doi: 10.1039/c8dt03784a.
Renewable energy utilization by energy conversion devices is regarded as a promising solution to resolve energy crisis and environmental pollution problems. Solar energy occupies 99% of the total energy of the Earth; therefore, the development of photovoltaic technology to convert solar energy into electricity is attracting considerable interests. The state-of-the-art research in this field mainly focuses on the improvement of power conversion efficiency under the sunlight irradiation by new materials development, device structure optimization, technique innovation, etc. In real natural environments, there is no or negligible sunlight for at least half of the time, particularly during rainy, foggy days or at night. Therefore, it is a challenging but promising strategy to develop new-type solar cells that can persistently harvest waste energies from nature without sacrificing the solar-to-electric conversion ability. In theory, these photovoltaics may break through the theoretical efficiency limitation and maximize the total power output. In this frontier article, the status quo of these physical proof-of-concept hybrid solar cells as well as the preparation methods of the solar cell architectures, and why harvesting waste energies are discussed. According to the working principles, the possible strategies of improving waste energy conversion efficiency are also envisaged.
能源转换装置对可再生能源的利用被视为解决能源危机和环境污染问题的一种有前途的解决方案。太阳能占据了地球总能量的 99%；因此，开发将太阳能转化为电能的光伏技术引起了相当大的兴趣。该领域的最新研究主要集中在通过新材料开发、器件结构优化、技术创新等手段提高在阳光照射下的功率转换效率。在实际的自然环境中，至少有一半的时间没有或几乎没有阳光，特别是在雨天、雾天或夜间。因此，开发新型太阳能电池是一项具有挑战性但很有前途的策略，这些新型太阳能电池可以持续从自然中收集废能，而不牺牲太阳能到电能的转换能力。从理论上讲，这些光伏电池可能突破理论效率限制，最大限度地提高总输出功率。在这篇前沿文章中，讨论了这些物理概念验证混合太阳能电池的现状以及太阳能电池结构的制备方法，以及为什么要收集废能。根据工作原理，还设想了提高废能转换效率的可能策略。
