Solar energy, with its advantages of reproducibility, richness, and no pollution, plays an important role in replacing traditional energy sources. However, the non-persistent nature and instability of solar energy make it necessary for solar power generation systems to have their own energy storage devices to store electrical energy, so as to ensure the continuity, stability, and controllability of power generation and power supply. Traditional photovoltaic power plants are usually supported by relatively independent large-capacity energy storage devices. The connection between subsystems often introduces more unnecessary loss, which reduces the solar energy utilization efficiency and system reliability.
For portable electronic products, a separate design not only reduces the overall performance, but also increases the weight and space of the system. Therefore, how to further improve the efficiency of solar energy utilization and reduce the cost of the photoelectric conversion and energy storage process is a question worth exploring. Since 2004, researchers have proposed an integrated photoelectric conversion-energy storage integrated device based on dye-sensitized solar cells and other photovoltaic thin-film cells, which has simplified charge generation, transmission, and storage steps. However, due to the introduction of photoelectric conversion efficiency, energy storage materials and mechanisms for selected photovoltaic cells, the overall performance of the device has not yet reached the desired level.
Recently, the team of Professor Fan Hongjin of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Ku Zhiliang of Wuhan University of Technology cooperated with three aspects of the rational design of photovoltaic cells, energy storage devices and charge transfer systems, and proposed a printable calcium titanium based on P-type polythiophene modification. Integrated solar photocell integrated photocapacitor integrated device. In recent years, the energy conversion efficiency of solar cells based on organic-inorganic complex perovskites (MAPbX3, MA=CH3NH3, X=Cl, Br, I) has risen rapidly to 21.0% (certified) after just 6 years of development, becoming Fighter in the field of photovoltaic cells. In order to optimize the battery structure and reduce the cost of batteries, the team successfully developed a single-substrate perovskite solar cell based on a mesoporous nickel counter electrode to replace the traditional gold plating process, and its photoelectric conversion efficiency can reach 13.6%. Based on this research, the team used the P-type polythiophene composite mesoporous carbon as the counter electrode of the perovskite solar cell, using a printable single-substrate structure and multi-selectivity of the counter electrode, to realize the positive charge collection of the photovoltaic cell and Dual function of storage. The symmetric mesoporous carbon-polythiophene electrode was used to collect negative charges to form an energy storage system. However, the chargeability of energy storage devices still requires the cyclic migration of the electrolyte.
Therefore, the influence of the electrolyte on the stability of the perovskite becomes a crucial issue. Researchers have continuously tried to develop a low-polarity organic electrolyte rich in perchlorate ions, and without affecting the stability of perovskite, a tantalum capacitor effect of polythiophene and perchlorate redox was achieved. In this integrated system of photo-capacitors, the generation and storage of positive charges is a synchronous process, and no additional transmission path is introduced. Therefore, the maximum energy storage efficiency of the photo-capacitor at the photoelectric conversion efficiency of 6% can reach 73.77%, which is superior to other photo-capacitors and photo-cell integrated devices reported today. With the improvement of the photoelectric conversion efficiency in the future, the maximum photoelectric conversion energy storage efficiency has a huge room for improvement, which will far exceed the 4.70% currently achieved by this system. The research work confirmed the feasibility and superiority of this integrated concept of photoelectric conversion and energy storage integration, and is expected to provide power for future portable devices. Related work has been published online at Advanced Materials Technologies.
