Photosynthesis Photovoltaic cells

At present, the only photochemical storage system which satisfies nearly all of these conditions is the reaction of photosynthesis however, certain photovoltaic cells such as the silicon and GaAs cells, satisfy many of the requirements for direct conversion to electricity. In addition, there are several possible systems which have a potential to satisfy most of the requirements and will be considered in this article. 

This volume of the series focuses on the photochemistry and photophysics of metal-containing polymers. Metals imbedded within macromolecular protein matrices form the basis for the photosynthesis of plants. Metal-polymer complexes form the basis for many revolutionary advances occurring now. The contributors to many of these advances are authors of chapters in this volume. Application areas covered in this volume include nonlinear optical materials, solar cells, light-emitting diodes, photovoltaic cells, field-effect transistors, chemosensing devices, and biosensing devices. At the heart of each of these applications are metal atoms that allow the assembly to function as required. The use of boron-containing polymers in various electronic applications was described in Volume 8 of this series. 

Photosynthesis The process by which plants convert sunlight to chemical energy. Photovoltaic cells Solar technology that converts the sunlight energy into electricity. 

A different combination of blend and bilayer structures can also be quite efficient. Having a mixture of polymers in the donor layer and using Ceo as the acceptor provides a way of increasing the spectrai range of absorption of photovoltaic cells while retaining good collection efficiency [23]. A blend donor layer can also be used to mimic the process of photosynthesis where many... 

Hews-Taylor K (2002) Artificial photosynthesis, basic research in biomimetic applications multilayer organic photovoltaic cell. CSIRO, Australia... 

The brute force approach to achieve this goal is to employ a solid-state photovoltaic cell to generate electricity that is subsequently passed into a commercial-type water electrolyzer. Although efficiencies obtained are relatively high, i.e., close to 8 %, these devices are very expensive. Hence the price of hydrogen produced this way cannot compete with conventional sources. The long-term outlook is better for systems that borrow their principles from natural photosynthesis (see Section 1.4.1 above). 

The efficiency of commercial solar cells is generally 10 percent or less, rather the 93.33 percent from the calculation above. The most important reason for this is that is. solar cells (and also biological cells in photosynthesis) can use radiant energy in just a small portion of the radiation frequency spectrum. Consequently, most of the radiation received by a solar cell is merely absorbed as heat, which is why many solar systems combine photovoltaic cells for the production of electricity with panels for heating water. Another loss factor is that some of the radiant energy received is reradiated to the sky (which can be considered a black body at a ternperature of 0 K.)... 

Ikegami M, Ozeki M, Kijitori Y, Miyasaka T (2008) Chlorin-sensitized high-efficiency photovoltaic cells that mimic spectral response of photosynthesis. Electrochem 76 140-143... 

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