Researchers Talk About The Basic Process Of Solar Cells

A group of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have shed light on the basic process of solar cell function. This can serve to improve efficiency and produce more solar power.

“The design of a solar cell string begins with a chromophore-part or group of atoms in a molecule responsible for its color-placed between two electrodes” explains Dr. Dewey Holten, “This string absorbs light energy and directs the energy to an electrode, where it is deposited as an electron. The chromophore molecule that lost the electron now has left behind a positive charge, called the migrating hole for the chain to the other electrode. The hole and electron recombine in an external circuit, generating electricity.

It is in charge separation where is the key to generating electricity from sunlight, and in this field where Holten and his collaborator Hee-eun Song have been working. Both have achieved a more accurate measure of the rate of transfer of charges. Earlier experiments had resulted in measures that passed as variable speed of 20 picoseconds to 50 nanoseconds. Holten and Hee-eun Song managed to reach an accurate measure of 0.5 / 1 nanosecond. This work has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and and it is printed in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B and Photochemistry and Photobiology.

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