Tungsten selenide is expected to be an ideal material for new flexible solar cells

       

Vienna University of Technology research team first developed in two selenide tungsten diode (WSe2) for energy storage materials, is expected to become the ideal material of new type of flexible solar cells, significantly higher in solar photoelectric conversion efficiency at the same time, also can realize the lightweight battery products.

Solar cells, also known as solar chips or photovoltaic cells, are devices that convert light energy directly into electricity through the photoelectric or photochemical effect. Solar cells can output voltage instantaneously and generate current in the presence of a circuit when light is available.

Thanks to the emergence of solar cells, not only the crisis of natural resources can be alleviated, but also the greenhouse effect can be effectively reduced. This is mainly because solar energy resources are inexhaustible and inexhaustible, and photovoltaic cells do not need fuel, do not emit carbon dioxide, do not pollute the air.

Compared with traditional chemical batteries, although solar cells have obvious advantages, they also have certain disadvantages, such as low photoelectric conversion rate, large area required, large manufacturing cost, and vulnerability to environmental impacts, which hinder their practical application.

The early silicon solar cells had higher conversion efficiency and more mature production technology, but due to the high cost of single crystal silicon and the products were quite bulky, they were gradually replaced by new flexible solar cells.

Tungsten selenide, like graphene, absorbs light and converts it into electricity, according to the researchers. Compared with other materials, tungsten disselenide has better electronic properties and can effectively improve the energy conversion efficiency of photocell.

The main structure of tungsten disselenide is composed of a layer of selenium atoms connected to a layer of tungsten atoms. Its thermal conductivity is about one hundred thousand times of the best thermal conductivity diamond, is the lowest thermal conductivity material in the world (or called thermal insulation), in other words, tungsten disselenide material is not easy to heat, energy conversion efficiency is high, so suitable for use in photocell.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that China's tungsten resource reserves are the world's first, so tungsten disselenide has a wide range of sources and reasonable price, which can save a lot of costs for most photovoltaic enterprises, that is, it can reduce the cost of new flexible solar cells to some extent.