Integrated Full‐Spectrum Solar Energy Catalysis for Zero‐Emission Ethylene Production from Bioethanol

A full-spectrum solar energy system is being designed by a research team lead by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Nevada, Reno. [1,2] The benchmark collector/receiver and prototype thermophotovoltaic (TPV) array have been built [3], so the work performed here is to match the two systems together for optimal performance. It is shown that a hollow, rectangular-shaped non-imaging (NI) device only 23 cm long can effectively distribute the IR flux incident on the TPV array mounted behind the secondary mirror. Results of the ray-tracing analysis of the different systems tested are presented.

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Energy-tunable photon-enhanced thermal tunneling electrons for intrinsic adaptive full spectrum solar energy conversion

Applied Physics Letters ◽

10.1063/1.5128820 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 116 (6) ◽

pp. 063902 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yicong Chen ◽

Shaozhi Deng ◽

Ningsheng Xu ◽

Jun Chen

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Energy Conversion ◽

Solar Energy Conversion ◽

Full Spectrum

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Silicon multi-resonant metasurface for full-spectrum perfect solar energy absorption

Solar Energy ◽

10.1016/j.solener.2020.02.053 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 199 ◽

pp. 360-365 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Zhengqi Liu ◽

Haozong Zhong ◽

Houjiao Zhang ◽

Zhenping Huang ◽

Guiqiang Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Energy ◽

Energy Absorption ◽

Full Spectrum

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Light-Harvesting and Photon Management in GaAs Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermoelectric Hybrid Systems

Volume 1: Micro/Nanofluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip; Nanofluids; Micro/Nanoscale Interfacial Transport Phenomena; Micro/Nanoscale Boiling and Condensation Heat Transfer; Micro/Nanoscale Thermal Radiation; Micro/Nanoscale Energy Devices and Systems ◽

10.1115/mnhmt2016-6357 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Xu Yuanpei ◽

Xuan Yimin

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Solar Energy ◽

Hybrid System ◽

Cell Structure ◽

Gaas Layer ◽

Back Contact ◽

Full Spectrum ◽

Fabry Perot ◽

Difference Time ◽

Novel Design

The utilization of solar energy in photovoltaics is limited due to the band gap of the materials. Hence, photovoltaic–thermoelectric hybrid system was proposed to utilize solar energy in the full spectrum of AM1.5G. On this basis, a novel design of GaAs solar cell is proposed in this paper for the full spectrum absorption in the cell structure, which consists of an ultra-thin GaAs layer with nanocones on the surface and a nanogrid–AZO–Ag back contact. The Finite Difference Time Domain method is used to analyze the full spectrum absorption features for TE and TM polarizations over the incident angles varying from 0° to 60°. The designed structure shows high absorption in the full spectrum. For GaAs layer, it is shown that the solar usable energy for GaAs solar cells in 300–900nm is absorbed by GaAs almost perfectly due to the anti–reflection property of the nanocone array. The absorbed energy in the back contact in the longer wavelengths over 900nm is due to the Fabry-Perot and the localized plasmonic resonances. The structure can collect full-spectrum incident photons efficiently in GaAs solar cells for the application of photovoltaic–thermoelectric hybrid system.

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