‘The best of both worlds’ is a phrase that we are able to identify with – as it more often than not brings together all that is good from two different systems, and a solar powered system that is capable of generating energy from both heat and light would be a breakthrough. Apparently, that is already possible thanks to the scientists at South Korea’s Yonsei University, as they have come up with a hybrid setup which is a whole lot more efficient than what we have had been able to rely on before.
Professor Eunkyoung Kim leads this team of researchers by placing a dye-sensitized solar cell right on top of a film that is made from a transparent conductive polymer called PEDOT. Under that film lies yet another film, where this one is made of a pyroelectric material, in addition to a thermoelectric device. Whenever it is exposed to sun-like full-spectrum light, the photovoltaic cell will not only absorb some of the light, whatever light that it fails to capture will head to the PEDOT film which heats up, hence using the captured heat to produce more electricity.
The scientists claim that this hybrid setup is capable of rolling out a voltage that is more than 500% over what other existing hybrid systems are able to do, with an operational efficiency of over 20% that of a solitary solar cell. [Press Release]
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