l'Actualité du Solaire

R & D Highlights: Solid State Battery, Singlet Fission Solar Cell

Harvard scientists present a solid-state lithium battery that can perform

more than 10,000 cycles, with a charging time of 10 to 20 minutes. This battery should avoid dendrites because there are two electrolytes: the first one in green on the picture is prone to dendrite creation. The second electrolyte (brown) is less stable with lithium but appears to be immune to dendrites: so dendrites can grow through the graphite, but are stopped by the second electrolyte.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/05/14/harvard-scientists-unveil-solid-state-lithium-battery-that-can-be-charged-and-discharged-at-least-10000-times/

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Australians have found that singlet fission solar cells increase the theoretical efficiency of photovoltaic technology, offer better theoretical performance and longer life than conventional photovoltaic devices. This, they say, would allow efficiencies close to 30% to be achieved.

Singlet fission is derived from quantum mechanics. It could make it possible to break the theoretical efficiency barrier of silicon photovoltaic cells: a singlet exciton generated by irradiation splits into two triplet excitons, which means that a single photon, or light particle, can generate two electron-hole pairs when absorbed in a solar cell instead of the usual one.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/05/14/new-discovery-promises-to-bring-singlet-fission-enhanced-c-si-solar-cells-nearer-to-commercial-production/