L R AS Published on Sunday 7 February 2021 - n° 349 - Categories:R&D
In short, R&D: hydrogen paste; Unist tandem cell; nanocomposites, catalyst for hydrogen
In short, R&D: hydrogen paste; Unist tandem cell; thin layers of nanocomposites in the UML; catalyst for hydrogen.
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has developed an alternative fuel
diesel based on hydrogen in paste form
South Koreans from UNIST have achieved an 18.04% efficiency of a tandem hybrid solar cell based on inorganic perovskite and organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) technologies, thanks to a near-optimal absorption spectral match between the two sub-cells of the device. They found an improvement in long-term stability under moisture stress.
In the near past, UNIST scientists had achieved efficiency rates of 22.1% for small cells; 19.7% for a 1 cm² cell and a further 25.2% with a perovskite solar cell by minimising deformation of the microstructure of the photoactive layers.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/02/05/hybrid-tandem-perovskite-solar-cell-with-18-04-efficiency/
Editor's note For non-professionals, each team of researchers achieves a new conversion record, but with different configurations. But we are not able to distinguish between them. Consequently, it is hard to understand why the 18% mentioned would be better than the 25% already obtained!
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Scientists at the German MLU have used thin layers of self-assembled three-dimensional nanocomposites to develop a new solar cell architecture based on the so-called anomalous photovoltaic effect. This special cell configuration is supposed to improve electricity production by a factor of five. (Editor's note: this is considerable).
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/02/05/performance-improvements-for-anomalous-photovoltaic-effect/
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Researchers in Australia and China have developed a catalyst that produces green hydrogen from seawater using solar energy. What's new is that the production is done from floating solar platforms and uses an easy-to-produce single-atom platinum catalyst that binds hydrogen and emits oxygen harmlessly.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/02/04/novel-catalyst-produces-green-hydrogen-from-seawater-via-solar/
