Photochromic dye-sensitized solar cells with light-driven adjustable optical transmission and power conversion efficiency

Quentin Huaulmé, Valid M. Mwalukuku, Damien Joly, Johan Liotier, Yann Kervella, Pascale Maldivi, Stéphanie Narbey, Frédéric Oswald, Antonio J. Riquelme, Juan Antonio Anta and Renaud Demadrille ()
Additional contact information
Quentin Huaulmé: University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), Molecular Systems and nanoMaterials for Energy and Health (SyMMES)
Valid M. Mwalukuku: University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), Molecular Systems and nanoMaterials for Energy and Health (SyMMES)
Damien Joly: University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), Molecular Systems and nanoMaterials for Energy and Health (SyMMES)
Johan Liotier: University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), Molecular Systems and nanoMaterials for Energy and Health (SyMMES)
Yann Kervella: University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), Molecular Systems and nanoMaterials for Energy and Health (SyMMES)
Pascale Maldivi: University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), Molecular Systems and nanoMaterials for Energy and Health (SyMMES)
Stéphanie Narbey: Solaronix SA
Frédéric Oswald: Solaronix SA
Antonio J. Riquelme: Área de Química Física, Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Juan Antonio Anta: Área de Química Física, Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Renaud Demadrille: University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), Molecular Systems and nanoMaterials for Energy and Health (SyMMES)

Nature Energy, 2020, vol. 5, issue 6, 468-477

Abstract: Abstract Semi-transparent photovoltaics only allow for the fabrication of solar cells with an optical transmission that is fixed during their manufacturing resulting in a trade-off between transparency and efficiency. For the integration of semi-transparent devices in buildings, ideally solar cells should generate electricity while offering the comfort for users to self-adjust their light transmission with the intensity of the daylight. Here we report photochromic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on dyes with a donor-π-conjugated-bridge-acceptor structure where the π-conjugated bridge is substituted by a diphenyl-naphthopyran photochromic unit. DSSCs show change in colour and self-adjustable light transmittance when irradiated and demonstrate a power conversion efficiency up to 4.17%. The colouration–decolouration process is reversible and these DSSCs are stable over 50 days. We also report semi-transparent photo-chromo-voltaic mini-modules (active area of 14 cm²) exhibiting a maximum power output of 32.5 mW after colouration.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0624-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:6:d:10.1038_s41560-020-0624-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nenergy/

DOI: 10.1038/s41560-020-0624-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Energy is currently edited by Fouad Khan

More articles in Nature Energy from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().