Local researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), improving energy conversion efficiency to a level that could not be achieved in the past 20 years, the National Science Council said yesterday.
By replacing the ruthenium-based dyes, generally used in DSSCs, with a modified porphyrin molecule, the team successfully pushed the energy conversion efficiency from 11 percent — the highest level achieved in the past two decades — to 13.1 percent, the council said at a press conference.
The achievement was published in Science magazine this month, it said, adding that the publication in the renowned magazine is an important milestone in the development of alternative energy sources.
The council-funded research team was led by National Chiao Tung University’s applied chemistry department professor Eric Diau (刁維光), Yeh Chen-yu (葉鎮宇) of National Chung Hsing University’s department of organic and material chemistry, in collaboration with Michael Graetzel of Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne in Switzerland.
Yeh said that the porphyrin molecule-based dye could be seen as artificial chlorophyll and was developed by mimicking the principles of solar energy and chemical conversion that photosynthesis in plants has successfully adopted over billions of years through evolution.
Taking into account the gradual depletion of petroleum-based fuels, pollution and safety concerns surrounding biomass and nuclear power and the rarity of ruthenium as an element in DSSCs, Yeh said the team’s achievement of DSSC with porphyrin molecule-based dye has the potential of becoming an important alternative energy source in the future.
In comparison with the so-called first and second generations of solar cells — silicon-based and thin film-based, respectively — Diau said the third generation of DSSC has the advantages of being low cost, highly efficient, simple in its manufacturing process, as well as being colorful, bendable and transparent.
In addition, Diau said, it could be easily applied to household electric appliances, such as remote controls, cellphone chargers and clocks, which only need low-voltage electricity. It could also be designed into art pieces because of its colorful features.
The team said it has applied for a patent on their invention and hopes to achieve a 15 percent energy conversion efficiency rate in future.
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