New system to take advantage of the solar light as power supply

A new system for the best utilization of the solar light as a power supply has been developed by European engineers. They have been able for the first time to manipulate the common light, which emits photons in an ample range of wavelengths, until turning photons of short wave and high energy, which will suppose the appearance of a new generation of photovoltaic solar cells. The feat has been obtained by means of the suitable combination of two substances that activate by  light and allows to use zones of the phantom of the apparently lost light of the sun for industrial use.
Engineers of the Max Planck for Institute Polymer Research in Mainz,  and of the Sony Materials Science Laboratory of Stuttgart have developed a procedure in which the long wavelength of the common light can be turned into photons of short wave and high energy, which will suppose the appearance of a new generation of photovoltaic cells, much more effective that the present ones.

It is the first time that the common light, like the one from the sun, can be manipulated to combine the present energy in photons with a particular wavelength. Until now this transformation had been only obtained using laser light of high energy.

The common light sources emit photons in almost all the directions, generally in an ample range of wavelengths. Nevertheless, a laser contains a single wavelength and emits generally photons in a very close ray, reason why it is easier to manipulate than the common light.
The light has one double nature: corpuscular (the called photons) and ondulatory. And although all the photons move at the speed of the light, each one of them does it with different steps that last differently. The period is the time that takes a photon to take each step, whereas the wavelength is the distance that it crosses in each step.

Photon fusion

According to the  Institute in an official notice, the manipulation of photons of the common light has been obtained by the suitable combination of two substances that activate with light. The results of this investigation have been published in the Physical Review Letters magazine.

What these engineer pursued was  to establish a procedure that amplified the level under the particles energy of common light diminishing its wavelength, and they have obtained it matching photons of normal light and thus altering its wavelength. This procedure will allow more taking advantage of the solar light to obtain electricity, which will result in the appearance of a new generation of photovoltaic solar cells.

In order to be able to match photons, the engineers used two substances diluted in a solution: platinum octaethyl porphyrin and diphenylanthracene. Whereas one of them serves like a “antenna” for the incoming green light (antenna molecule), the other matches photons, transforming both green photons of low energy into a single photon of blue light of high energy. This new photon is emitted by the same molecule (emitting molecule).

Detailed process

In a more detailed way, the phenomenon is the following one: in the first place, the called “antenna molecules” absorb a green photon of little energy and they transmit it to an emitting molecule in form of package of energy.

The emitting molecule stores this energy in “excited” states. Later, two of loaded emitting molecules of energy react to each other, transmitting the energy of a molecule to another. As a  result, a molecule recovers its state of reduced energy and second it stores a double package of energy, that is emitted in a blue photon form. This blue photon has a short wavelength and more energy than the green light emitted initially, as a result of the combination of two photons in one.

According to the Max Planck Institute, the procedure is very interesting from the chemical point of view because the molecules must carefully be matched to allow that the energy is transmitted effectively and, on the other hand, neither the antenna molecules nor the transmitters must lose their energy during the operation.

The engineers must synthesize an antenna  molecule able to absorb the long wave light and to preserve it the necessary time until their transmission towards emitting molecules. A complex metal-organic compound, constituted by a platinum atom, only serves to make the process inside a molecule with ring form.
The emitting molecule, on the other hand, must be able to gather the energy package of the antenna and to preserve it until it finds another emitting molecule excited that allows a new photon fusion.

New Photovoltaic Cells

Since this procedure allows to use zones of the phantom of the apparently lost light of the sun for the industry, the creator engineers of this finding hope that it  begins with offering an ideal point for the manufacture of a new generation of photovoltaic solar cells or, much more effective than the present ones.

The solar cells are sensible electrical elements to the light that are able to produce electricity. They are constructed with semiconductors. When making contact with opposite semiconductors, the photons are able to become two loaded particles (electron and positron). The circulation of electrons is what originates electricity.

The traditional voltaic cells work thanks to the materials they are made of. Some of these materials have an excess of electrons, whereas others have deficit. Thus, the photons that affect the cells take the leftover electrons of a layer and they make them move towards those layers where there is an electron deficit or “emptiness”. This way, the electron flow takes place and, therefore, an electrical voltage occurs.

Nevertheless, the yield of the solar cells at the present time is limited, among other reasons, by the fact that the part of the solar light that is of long waved and low energy cannot take advantage of. With the new system, the common light can better be taken advantage of the electricity generation, thanks to the technologies in solar energy.

Once this  system was discovered it that allows the best advantage of the solar energy to obtain electricity, European engineers are centered in optimizing the process, proving new pairs of substances able to catch other colors of the light pnahtom and being tried to integrate them in the matrix of polymer or macro-molecule.