Solar energy conversion

Abstract

Photochemical conversion of solar photons is one of the most promising and sought after solutions to the current global energy problem. It combines the advantages of an abundant and widespread source of energy, the Sun, and Earth-abundant and environmentally benign materials, to produce other usable forms of energy such as electricity and fuels, without the negative impact of CO2 or other greenhouse gas release into the atmosphere. Dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSC) and organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells are two examples of such systems, allowing the conversion of visible sunlight into electricity by inorganic or organic semiconductor materials, which are inexpensive and easy to process on a large scale. Photocatalytic (PC) and photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting systems offer a solution to the problem of diffuse and intermittent sunlight irradiation, by storing the energy of solar photons in the form of clean energy vectors such as H2. This chapter presents an overview of the technologies based on photochemical solar energy conversion and storage.