In this book, expert authors describe advanced solar photon conversion approaches that promise highly efficient photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells with sophisticated architectures on the one ...hand, and plastic photovoltaic coatings that are inexpensive enough to be disposable on the other. Their leitmotifs include light-induced exciton generation, junction architectures that lead to efficient exciton dissociation, and charge collection by percolation through mesoscale phases. Photocatalysis is closely related to photoelectrochemistry, and the fundamentals of both disciplines are covered in this volume.
The second edition of Clean Electricity from Photovoltaics, first published in 2001, provides an updated account of the underlying science, technology and market prospects for photovoltaics. All ...areas have advanced considerably in the decade since the first edition was published, which include: multi-crystalline silicon cell efficiencies having made impressive advances, thin-film CdTe cells having established a decisive market presence, and organic photovoltaics holding out the prospect of economical large-scale power production.
Photovoltaic (PV) cells provide clean, reversible electrical power from the sun. Made from semiconductors, they are durable, silent in operation and free of polluting emissions. In this book, experts ...from all sectors of the PV community - materials scientists, physicists, production engineers, economists and environmentalists - give their critical appraisals of where the technology is now and what its prospects are.
Green plants and photosynthetic organisms are the Earth's natural photoconverters of solar energy. In future, biomass and bioenergy will become increasingly significant energy sources, making a ...contribution both to carbon dioxide abatement and to the security, diversity and sustainability of global energy supplies. In this book, experts provide a series of authoritative chapters on the intricate mechanisms of photosynthesis and the potential for using and improving photosynthetic organisms, plants and trees to sequester carbon dioxide and to provide fuel and useful chemicals for the benefit of man.
Similarities and differences between semiconductor-based photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices for solar energy conversion are briefly reviewed.
Green plants and photosynthetic organisms are the Earth's natural photoconverters of solar energy. In future, biomass and bioenergy will become increasingly significant energy sources, making a ...contribution both to carbon dioxide abatement and to the security, diversity and sustainability of global energy supplies. In this book, experts provide a series of authoritative chapters on the intricate mechanisms of photosynthesis and the potential for using and improving photosynthetic organisms, plants and trees to sequester carbon dioxide and to provide fuel and useful chemicals for the benefit of man.
In this book, expert authors describe advanced solar photon conversion approaches that promise highly efficient photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells with sophisticated architectures on the one ...hand, and plastic photovoltaic coatings that are inexpensive enough to be disposable on the other. Their leitmotifs include light-induced exciton generation, junction architectures that lead to efficient exciton dissociation, and charge collection by percolation through mesoscale phases. Photocatalysis is closely related to photoelectrochemistry, and the fundamentals of both disciplines are covered in this volume.
The required characteristics of an ideal photoconverter of solar radiation to electrical or chemical energy are summarized. The four unavoidable loss mechanisms inherent in single-junction ...photoconverters - lack of absorption of sub-bandgap photons, thermalization of ultra-bandgap photons, the difference between the available energy and internal energy of the thermalized excited states, and the small loss of excited states by radiative decay - are quantified. As the Gibbs energy of the product of an irreversible photochemical reaction falls below the ideal limiting value attained by reversible reactions, the maximum energy stored falls rapidly. This is shown in diagrammatic form for three examples: the isomerization of nonbornadiene to quadricyclane, and the splitting of water by a 2-electron, 2-phonon and a 2-electron, 4-photon process. The radiative lifetime of the excited states in molecular chromophores and semiconductors is linked to the absorption spectra by the appropriate broadband form of the Einsten relation between absorption and emission probability. For molecules, this is the Foerster or the similar Strickler-Berg relation, and for semiconductors it is the van Roosbroeck-Shockley relation. The radiative lifetimes predicted by these relations are compared with those required for ideal performance in four molecular and semiconductor systems.
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