Harvesting of the infrared energy: Direct collection, up-conversion, and storage

Abstract

Infrared (IR) energy constitutes almost a half of the solar radiation coming to the Earth surface and almost 100% of the outgoing terrestrial radiation. Surprisingly, but such a huge energy flux is mostly considered as thermal waste and is not used for the practical needs on the large scale. Here, two major methods of the IR energy collection have been briefly reviewed, the direct one and harvesting through up-conversion to the visible range, where this energy can be picked up by the conventional solar cells. Advantages and disadvantages of the above methods have been discussed. Potential of application of IR dyes for IR energy collection has been demonstrated. Storage of the IR energy as a delayed way of its consumption has been also discussed.

Dynamics of Excitons in Conjugated Molecules and Organic Semiconductor Systems

“…Schematic of two-photon upconversion processes. , Real electronic levels are shown by solid bars, while virtual levels are indicated by the dashed lines. Abbreviations: ISC, intersystem crossing; ET, energy transfer.…”

“…Figure65. Schematic of two-photon upconversion processes 534,535. Real electronic levels are shown by solid bars, while virtual levels are indicated by the dashed lines.…”

Impact of the thermal properties of the environment on the hot-band absorption-assisted single-photon upconversion

“…However, this huge flow of energy is mostly considered as thermal waste and is not used for practical purposes on a large scale. There are some difficulties in capturing the IR energy using quantum photoelectric devices, such as solar cells, 1,2 because the band gap of the respective materials must match or should be smaller than the energy of the thermal quant. However, in the low-energy spectral range, thermal noise has a significant effect on the operation of a photodetector.…”

An infrared energy harvester based on radar cross-section reduction of chiral metasurfaces through phase cancellation approach

“…Earth has its own infrared spectrum which peaks at 10 μm 3 , 9 . Unfortunately, this immense amount of power have not been largely utilized due to the complexity in direct conversion to electrical energy in the infrared region 3 , 10 . Since photovoltaic effect is a quantum phenomenon, only photons that have specific energy levels can be effectively absorbed.…”

“…Hence the conventional silicon-based p–n junctions do not support infrared radiations and as a result have limited efficiencies. Materials such as the narrow gap inorganic semiconductors and compounds and inorganic quantum wells can be employed but their applications have not been fully explored yet 10 . The efficiency of the PV cells can further increased by reducing the spurious reflection of the incident light which requires a very intricate design involving control of feedback reflection path and dissipation of light energy at nanoscale.…”