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Published online 10 July 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.949
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Organic dyes help harvest sunlight
Solar-power costs could be slashed by cheap collectors, claim researchers.
A simple sheet of glass coated with dye could be enough to cut the costs of solar power.
That's the claim from researchers who have created a 'solar concentrator' that harvests photons and funnels them into photovoltaic devices.
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Organic chromophore as hard Lewis base polydentate ligand. Coordinate a lanthanide cation (re Polaroid transition metal-ballasted dyes) with about 10 legs total to an anionic complex. Or coordinate one more electron donor, dipolar Lewis base or overt anion, for large fluorecence efficiences. Chromophores transfer harvested energy to the lanthanide ion that in turn emits at the semiconductor's absorption maximum. Chromophores' Stokes absorption tails are not the anti-Stokes emission lead of the metal ion - immense Stokes shifts obtain. Three dyes cover the solar spectrum. The complexes have photolysis half-lives ~10 years. Diffuse illumination is fine - no optics. It was reduced to practice at Occidental Research in 1979 by "Fat Freddy". Doped Plexiglas gave several suns' concentration via total internal reflection, critical angle = 42 degrees, as deep red exiting its narrow edges. It was killed by the VP R&D. High refractive index ophthalmic resins have critical angles ~33 degrees. High refractive index thin film on cheap bulk substrate is preferable. It only need be a few thicknesses of the evanescent wavelength.
Is the cost mentioned here US$1 per WATT less? I might be wrong, but I was thinking that we are looking for something US$1 per KILOWATT HOUR.
My previous comment was not valid, as I was thinking Watt Hours, not Watt...