Photovoltaic solar technology is in full development, as there is still a lot of room for evolution. Solar panels are a clear example of this and the appearance of new materials promises to considerably increase their performance.
Currently, a high performance panel available on the photovoltaic solar market does not exceed the 23% yieldTherefore, there is still a lot of research in relation to the efficiency and application of new materials that make solar energy a truly competitive energy producer.
The predominant technology in the current market is that of solar cells composed of polycrystalline and monocrystalline inorganic materials. But in recent times there has been remarkable progress in photovoltaic technology due to considerable advances in electronics and organic materials.
Fullerene is the third known stable molecular form of carbon, besides graphite and diamond.
And these advances are coming mainly through the organic solar cellsthat is, those in which at least the active layer is composed of organic molecules.
There are three main types: molecular, organic polymer and hybrid. And, within this field of research, perovskite cells stand out on the one hand and those formed by fullerene on the other.
what is fullerene
Fullerene is a molecule composed of carbon whose spherical structure is similar to that of a geodesic dome or a soccer ball. That is why it is also called “buckminsterfullerene” or “football”.
What makes fullerene special is that it is the third known stable molecular form of carbon, besides graphite and diamond. Therefore, its main quality is very high resistance it has, because it is not in vain that temperatures of more than 1000 ºC are necessary to destroy its particles.
Fullerene also has lubricating properties, it is capable of sublimating (going from a solid to a gaseous state without going through a liquid state) without losing the spheres and its molecules are very electronegative, forming bonds with atoms that donate electrons. It is called a superconductor for its ability to conduct electric current without resistance or loss of energy under certain conditions.
Fullerene in the photovoltaic industry
As we said at the beginning, there are several types of organic solar cells and, among them, the polymer photovoltaic are some of the most interesting.
Fullerene begins to have its impact on these types of cells and Russian scientists have created fullerene molecules polymerized with scandium and carbon atoms inside.
This achievement makes it possible to advance in numerous fields of application of fullerene, such as elements of nanoelectronics and optoelectronics, biomedical engineering such as high performance contrast agents or photovoltaic and optical devices.
A team of researchers from the Russian NUST MISIS obtained for the first time endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) containing scandium and studied the process of its polymerization.
‘We have found that guest atoms facilitate the polymerization process. Scandium atoms completely modify the fullerene bonding process by polarizing the carbon bonds, which leads to an increase in its chemical activity»explained Pavel Sorokin, Principal Investigator at the NUST MISIS Inorganic Nanomaterials Laboratory.
Fullerene could be the key to reaching control the spin orientation, a physical property of elementary particles by which they have an intrinsic angular momentum of fixed value. Usual solar cells have disordered spins, but the use and control of this property allows the efficiency of the solar cell to be increased, which is thus capable of generating a higher current.
Source: Science Direct