Polymeric materials for conversion of electromagnetic waves from the sun to electric power

Haque, SK; Ardila-Rey, Jorge; Umar, Yunusa; Rahman, Habibur; Mas’ud, Abdullahi; Muhammad-Sukki, Firdaus; Albarracín, Ricardo

Abstract

Solar photoelectric energy converted into electricity requires large surface areas with incident light and flexible materials to capture these light emissions. Currently, sunlight rays are converted to electrical energy using silicon polymeric material with efficiency up to 22\%. The majority of the energy is lost during conversion due to an energy gap between sunlight photons and polymer energy transformation. This energy conversion also depends on the morphology of present polymeric materials. Therefore, it is very important to construct mechanisms of highest energy occupied molecular orbitals (HOMO)s and the lowest energy unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMO)s to increase the efficiency of conversion. The organic and inorganic solar cells used as dyes can absorb more photons from sunlight and the energy gap will be less for better conversion of energy to electricity than the conventional solar cells. This paper provides an up-to-date review on the performance, characterization, and reliability of different composite polymeric materials for energy conversion. Specific attention has been given to organic solar cells because of their several advantages over others, such as their low-energy payback time, conversion efficiency and greenhouse emissions. Finally, this paper provides the recent progress on the application of both organic and inorganic solar cells for electric power generations together with several challenges that are currently faced.

Citation

Haque, S., Ardila-Rey, J., Umar, Y., Rahman, H., Mas’ud, A., Muhammad-Sukki, F., & Albarracín, R. (2018). Polymeric materials for conversion of electromagnetic waves from the sun to electric power. Polymers, 10(3), Article 307. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10030307

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 6, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Mar 12, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 24, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 25, 2020
• Journal: Polymers
• Electronic ISSN: 2073-4360
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 307
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10030307
• Keywords: Polymeric materials, Photovoltaic energy, Electric power
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2703198
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/10/3/307/htm