A team of professors from the University of Wyoming has a discovery that will enhance a more efficient Solar Cell in delivering electrical energy. The process had seen the leap of a more efficient cell giving an output of a solar energy conversion rate to up to 700 percent. The new solar cells deliver more power than the usual solar cell composites.
The University of Wyoming professors are Jinke Tang and Yuri Dahnovsky, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy; Te Yu Chien, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Wenyong Wang, an associate professor in the same department. The group co-wrote and published their research in the journal "Applied Physics Letters" last year. The paper entitled "Giant Photocurrent Enhancement by Transition Metal Doping in Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells" is in the limelight again pinpointed by the Department of Energy in the U.S. last April 2017. The DOE is responsible for the more efficient Solar Cell project funding.
At the onset of the team's trials, 4% of manganese atoms was added to the existing Lead Sulfide (PbS), Quantum Dot. The researchers expect to see a 4 percent rise in solar efficiency. But to their surprise, the professors calculated a 300 percent leap in solar energy delivery. At certain conditions, a 700 percent rise in efficiency is supplied, which is an unusual process, said Dahnovsky.
Presently, photoconductors and sensitizers are made of silicon. The search for more effective materials to replace them had been found and that is manganese. The replacement of silicon into manganese will mean more efficient solar cells. The discovery could lead to segment revolutionizing relevant applications in the field of solar energy, reports Physics.Org.
The small addition of Manganese atoms replacing a few of the lead atoms made the huge difference for a more efficient solar cell and enhance the solar conversion rate to electricity. The discovery also opened opportunities for other industrial and electronic applications across various industries, reports the US Department of Energy.
The application of the enhanced Solar Energy Harvester by more efficient Solar Cells will help remote places unreachable by electricity. The effect of the energy that will be available and the cost savings that follows makes solar energy affordable.
